The Yahrzeit Seudah

Several friends used to learn together on Thursday nights in the apartment of Reb Shloimke, which stood across from the Mir. They still remember one member of the group who had no children. He poured out his heart to Reb Meilech, Rav Elimelech Biderman, who heard him out in silence.

Reb Meilech then pointed out that the yahrzeit of the Bas Ayin was coming up in a week. His advice was that the man should hold the seudah himself, at his own home. It made little sense to him, yet the friends came to his apartment when the day arrived. Nine months passed, and the whole circle celebrated with him at the birth of his first child, a daughter.

Why the Bas Ayin of all tzaddikim? Nobody knows for certain, but one of Reb Meilech's close talmidim has a thought. Nearly every teaching in the sefer Bas Ayin comes back to hachnaah, submission, and no one takes up less space than Reb Meilech. He is a smile, a voice that calls to courage and hope, someone who claims nothing and demands nothing. He is the same man who dances on tabletops, throws himself over kevarim, and takes a seat on the low wall by the shul entrance once a shiur ends, just to talk with a discouraged fifteen-year-old bochur.