{"id":97829,"date":"2022-11-19T20:16:56","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T18:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/?p=97829"},"modified":"2022-11-19T20:16:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T18:16:56","slug":"the-picture-of-purity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/the-picture-of-purity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Picture of Purity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Picture of Purity<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was in New York, a Jew named Menachem T., who prayed at the Yad Avraham <\/em>Beit Hakeneset, approached me, asking for a blessing for his sick father.<\/p>\n

This story took place before Menachem was a ba\u2019al teshuvah<\/em>. His clothing attested to his detachment from all things Jewish. Nevertheless, I told him, \u201cThe fact that you came to ask for a berachah<\/em> from a rabbi proves that you are a believer. It is up to you now to take that belief to the next level, strengthening your faith and knowledge of Judaism.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked, \u201cWere your parents mitzvah-observant?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he replied, adding, \u201cI\u2019m not completely certain, but I am pretty sure that there were never mitzvah observers in our family.\u201d<\/p>\n

I replied, \u201cSomeone who looks at you would have a hard time believing that you had a righteous grandfather. I want to ask you to do something. Go to your parents\u2019 house and look through their albums. Find a picture of your grandfather. If he had a beard and payot<\/em>, it is a sign from Heaven that his merit will stand by you. If this weren\u2019t the case, you would not have approached me to begin with. This might also be a sign that you should become a ba\u2019al teshuvah<\/em>, thereby bringing merit to your father, for a complete recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menachem continued, \u201cAs far as I know, there were no religious Jews in my family. It is difficult to imagine that my grandfather had a beard and payot<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can you lose? Please do as I ask and see what you come up with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menachem\u2019s parents lived in Netanya. He took a plane and flew over the Atlantic, in search of the picture. He rifled through their albums, until, to his utter surprise, he came upon the image of a distinguished-looking man, adorned with a full beard and payot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Menachem studied the picture. On the back, he read one word, \u201cMenachem.\u201d He immediately approached his father, asking him whose picture this was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was my father, of blessed memory, after whom you are named.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that very moment, something stirred in Menachem\u2019s heart. The spark of Judaism, contained in every Jewish soul, was fanned into the fire of teshuvah.<\/p>\n

After some time, when Menachem\u2019s father began noticing the change in his son, he told him, \u201cI can now leave this world in peace, for I know that there is someone who will say Kaddish for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man passed away that same day.<\/p>\n

As long as the son did not do teshuvah, restoring to the family its rightful birthright, the father battled his illness, amidst tremendous suffering. His soul refused to leave its earthly abode. Once the father saw that he was leaving his family\u2019s heritage in good hands, his soul was calmed, and he was able to rest in peace.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Picture of Purity When I was in New York, a Jew named Menachem T., who prayed at the Yad Avraham Beit Hakeneset, approached me, asking for a blessing for his sick father. This story took place before Menachem was a ba\u2019al teshuvah. His clothing attested to his detachment from all things Jewish. Nevertheless, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":28264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1043],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-following-in-the-footsteps-of-our-fathers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}