My Father, the Sadigura Rebbe zts”l
A few months ago, Binah Magazine started featuring interviews with the daughters of tsaddikim to give us readers an insider’s view of what these great people were like not only as leaders of thousands, but also as fathers and human beings. I’ve been finding these columns really fascinating and inspirational, and especially loved this story shared by Rebbetzin Chava Scharf about her father, the Sadigura Rebbe zts”l, who passed away earlier this year. It reminds me of the holiness of taking care of my kids’ physical needs: the cooking and the cleaning and the ponytail-making and the nose-wiping. Or, as Rabbi Yisrael Salanter responded when he was once asked: “How do you take care of your spiritual needs?”… He responded, “By taking care of somebody else’s physical needs.”
The Sadigura Rebbe holding a newborn at the dedication of Bikur Holim Hospital's new delivery rooms in 2011
“A bar mitzvah boy who had been an orphan from age three came to my father to put on tefillin for the first time. When the boy removed his jacket, the Rebbe noticed his shirt was missing two buttons. My father requested a sewing kit from my mother and proceeded to sew on the buttons. Then he put the tefillin on the bar mitzvah boy.
“The boy later said, ‘HaRebbe tafar li et halev…’ The Rebbe sewed up [the hole in] my heart.”
Just for the record, My late father in law, Zvi-Hirsh Brender, was able to save the Sadigura rebbi and his entire family from Europe DURING the Holocaust ( we still are not sure of all the details). He brought them to Israel and they all lived for a short time in the same apartment until the Sadigura rebbe bought/received an apartment in Tel Aviv.
What a powerful act.