Author Archive

“Are you all ready to die al Kiddush Hashem?!” he thundered.

“Yes!” The men cried in unison.

Reb Shloimele reached under the challah cover resting on the table, grabbed the large silver-handled knife and waved it in the air, his face red as a beet.

His name is Volf. A Chasid in his mid-thirties with a long black beard and wide unkempt payess, a pair of dark eyes set deeply beneath heavy eyebrows, a large forehead with wrinkled lines pointing to the heavens. His shoelaces…

It’s scary, he says. Only two hundred thirty nine years left until the end of time. That’s not a lot of time, he says. And still he hasn’t come. It’s very scary.

My father waits for Moshiach. Year after year…

It’s a winter Friday night, freezing cold outside but inside the small shul it is warm. All adults and children are on their feet facing the opposite side of the holy ark, singing ecstatically along with the chazzan…