Rabbi Moshe Haber, a Maggid Shiur at the small Tomchei Temimim Yeshiva in Kiryat Gat, is used to having yeshiva students come to ask him questions about the Gemara. But the two students who stood in front of him came to ask what the Gemara is.
""We found an old gemara that was donated to the yeshiva for a thousand dollars," they said.
The first clue was a name that appeared on the opening page: Eliaz Beersheba.
Rabbi Haber asked his fellow yeshiva staff members if any of them knew where that gemara came from, and one of them confirmed that he had received an old Shas from a resident of the Lehavim settlement, who asked to deliver it to a place where it would be used.
This is how the Shas was brought to the yeshiva.
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Rabbi Haber obtained the phone number of the man, whose name was Yosef Eliaz, and called him to ask if he had hidden a thousand dollars inside one of the volumes. His answer was: "In the past, I used to keep money between the pages of the Gemara, but I don't remember losing that amount.".
Rabbi Haber shared with the students the clarification he had made, and told them that there was room for a halachic discussion as to whether in such a case the obligation to make up for lost property applies, but he recommended proceeding in accordance with the law and returning the money to its owner.
The students, Levi Ben-Ma'esh and Mandy Salomon, said they would be happy to do so. Thus, Rabbi Haber and the two students appeared at the door of Eliaz's house in Lehavim.
""The man received us very warmly," says Rabbi Haber. "He offered to wear a kippah in our honor, and we told him to behave as he felt was appropriate.".
The meeting lasted more than an hour and a half, during which he recounted his life story to the three of them.
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He was born in 1939 (late 1939) in Kaunas, Lithuania. His father, Rabbi Eliezer Levin, was murdered immediately after the Nazi occupation. His mother, Hadassah, wandered with him in the ghettos, and, having no choice, entrusted him to nuns in a monastery.
After the war, the mother came out of the forests, exhausted and weak, and asked to receive her son. The nuns refused. The mother fought like a lion and managed to rescue him. Her desire was strong to immigrate with her son to the Land of Israel, but her strength could not withstand it and she died.
""Mr. Eliaz described to us the 'Shema Yisrael' he said to his mother in her last moments," Rabbi Haber says with excitement. "His mother wrote a chilling diary during the Holocaust, and his son published it.".
The orphaned boy immigrated to Israel as part of the youth immigration and began his new life. He served as a senior legal advisor and was even appointed a judge in the Magistrate's Court.
""After listening to the Jew's chilling story, we suggested that he put on tefillin. He happily agreed," says Rabbi Haber. "His prayer was very moving. We felt as if we were standing at the Yom Kippur prayer. While he was praying, his granddaughters entered the house and asked about the meaning of the sight. Their grandmother told them about the tefillin, and it was clear that the whole situation made her happy.".
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The visit concluded with the students handing over the money to the retired judge, and he thanked them from the bottom of his heart.
Mr. Eliaz told 'The Conversation of the Week' that after immigrating to Israel, he studied at the Institute for Holocaust Survivors in Jerusalem and then at Yavne and Kfar Haro'ah.
""At that time, I bought a Babylonian Shas. I saved some money and hid it inside the Gemara. Years later, when the series by Rabbi Even-Israel (Steinsaltz) came out, I purchased it, and asked the Chabad rabbi to transfer the previous Shas to a place where they would study it.
""I was surprised by the phone call I received from the yeshiva in Kiryat Gat. I met Rabbi Meir Panim with two of his students. We discussed matters of Torah and tradition in a warm conversation. They could certainly have left it in their own hands, and from what I understand, they were acting in accordance with the law, and for that I thanked them.".
The story took an interesting turn the following Sabbath. One of the students, Ben-Ma'esh, lives in the town of Michmoret. On Sabbath, his father told the story to the worshippers.
On Shabbat night, a guest who was spending Shabbat in the community knocked on the family door. He said he was so moved by the story that he decided to give the two students a gift: a thousand dollars – the amount they returned...
• The full story was published in 'The Conversation of the Week''
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