Eternally Grateful

Rabbi Noah Weinberg -- Yisroel Noach ben Yitzchak Matisyahu -- Rosh Yeshiva of Aish HaTorah, returned his soul to his Maker this morning after an extended illness. Although I never had the chance to meet him or hear him speak in person, I feel an eternal debt of hakaras hatov, gratitude, to him.

To say that Rav Weinberg had a tremendous impact on tens of thousands of Jews across the world is an understatement. Through his dream of bringing the light of Torah to Jews everywhere, individuals and families from NYC to Jerusalem to London to Johannesburg, have returned to a Torah lifestyle.

On a personal level, Aish HaTorah was the first yeshiva my husband attended, and it was primarily due to them that he became observant. I feel that Rav Noah's work was responsible - with Siyata Dishmaya, Divine intervention, and him as the messenger - for giving me the gift of my better half.

I'm reminded of a story that I heard Rabbi Paysach Krohn tell over. The true story is about a Jewish doctor who refused to give up on a woman who suffered cardiac arrest in a hospital cafeteria, when all of the other medical staff had stopped trying to save her. The woman ended up surviving and could not adequately thank the doctor when he visited her later in her hospital room. She said that every time she saw a sunset, or enjoyed a beautiful day, she would thank the doctor, and every time she celebrated an occasion with her family, she would thank the doctor, and so on.

If it's impossible to sufficiently thank a person for saving one's body, than all the more so for saving one's neshama.

Every time that I light Shabbos candles with my kids around me and sit down to a Shabbos dinner with my family, I have Rav Weinberg to thank. Every time my husband shares a dvar Torah or my son tells me about the Parsha, I should thank Rav Weinberg. Every time I pick my children up from gan or read them a bedtime story, I should thank Rav Weinberg. And every time we have guests over at our Shabbos table who are returning to Judaism, I have Rav Weinberg to thank.

We cannot measure how far-reaching his efforts were; how many individuals, families and generations were saved from being lost to the Jewish People forever.

To all those touched by Rav Noach, in essence "the entire Jewish world" as Aish.com states, HaMakom yenachem etchem b'toch shar aveilay Tzion veYerushalayim. May G-d comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.