Linked to Klal Yisroel

On the final night of Rav Ben Tzion's life, a leading Rosh Yeshiva of the generation phoned him with an important question. When the Rosh Yeshiva called again the next day for the answer, the weeping of Rav Eliyahu, Rav Ben Tzion's only son, told him what had happened.

The funeral on the 19th of Tammuz 5758 drew masses of Jews from every circle. The Rabbonim who spoke at the funeral and during shiva represented the entire range of Chareidi Jewry, and everyone mourned the loss to Klal Yisroel. His son Rav Eliyahu also spoke. His father, he said, did not belong to one circle. He was linked to Klal Yisroel. He drew everyone close and loved them all, shared the community's pain and its joy, and everyone who met him felt a close kinship with him.

A miracle took place on the final day of shiva. A car loaded with explosives had been left in the center of Yerushalayim, and it abruptly burst into flames. Passersby hurried to rescue the driver, unaware that the vehicle was packed with explosives or that its driver was a terrorist. Had the bomb gone off in the heart of the city as planned, the disaster would have been enormous.

No one knows what became of all the patients in those ambulances that sped past Porat Yosef and received Rav Ben Tzion's blessings. And no one knows what took place in Heaven when the shiva ended. But we can imagine.