The Last Parlor Meeting

Two months before Rav Pam passed away, his health began to decline. Still, three weeks before his petirah the annual Shuvu parlor meeting was to take place, and although he was extremely weak, he insisted on going. The doctors spent the entire day disconnecting him from the machines he was on and connecting him to portable ones, and three doctors accompanied him to make sure all would be well. He traveled by ambulance and was brought in on a stretcher.

There he spoke for just five minutes on the immense importance of giving Jewish children a Jewish education. Hardly anything needed to be said, because the sight of how much effort it cost him to come told everyone present how deeply he cared. It was his last public appearance, and his message was that every Jew, in all circumstances, is obligated to do the utmost for the chinuch of Jewish children.