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Danger in dried fruit?! Tu B’Shvat

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Woman Just After Birth Received Shocking Diagnosis

A young Israeli family was devastated last week, after the loss of 28-year-old mother of 3 Chana Ben Shitrit. Chana was diagnosed with cancer a year and a half ago, shortly after giving birth to her youngest daughter. During the time that followed she underwent rigorous treatments, as her husband Mordechai juggled being by her side, and tending to their young children alone.

She passed away last week, leaving behind daughters Moriah (4), Noah (3), and Ayala (1.5). The family gets up from shiva today.

An emergency fund for the family shows heartbreaking video footage of Chana’s younger sister, who states through tear-filled eyes that she had promised her sister that she would provide for her children after her death. At her side are two beautiful curly-haired children, who are clearly too young to grasp the gravity of the past week’s events. Near the end of the video, they point to their aunt’s face, giggling “She’s crying! She’s crying!”

It is difficult to watch.

An appeal from husband Mordechai explains that the family has fallen into a serious financial situation, as he has struggled to support his family whilst tending to the medical needs of his dying wife. The page also includes a video of the Ben Shitrit girls at their mother’s bedside, wishing her a ‘refua shalema.’ One can only imagine their devastation.

Donations for the family are being collected, with the goal of providing the children with some financial security until their father, who has barely begun to mourn, is able to provide to them the life they need.

“I will do everything within my power to help them,” writes the newly widowed man. “But I cannot do it alone.”

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Jewish Man Brain Damaged After Horrific Accident

It is a typical Monday morning, and the little cheder boys spill energetically into their classroom. They have their seats and sit transfixed as the rebbe begins his daily lesson on the ‘alef beis.’ One figure in the classroom, however, is out of place. In one of the miniature plastic chairs sits a grown man with a grey beard. At first he appears to be a visitor, there to observe on behalf of a grandchild. Soon, however, it becomes clear: He is a talmid.

Brain damage has robbed the man who used to be a talmid chacham of even the most rudimentary Jewish knowledge. As the lessons draw to a close, he follows the children out onto the playground. Tragically unaware of his impairment, he plays as if he is a child. Just then, his adult children come to escort him home. With tears of humiliation and grief in their eyes, they ask:

“Tatty, don’t you remember who you are?”

It is a known Jewish parable, told by Rav Yitzchok Silberstein and later re-told by Rabbi Yechiel Spero, meant to illustrate the tragedy of the Jewish people gone astray. For one Jerusalem family, however, it is not a parable, but a reality.

Pinchas Hominer was a ‘typical’ father of 13 children whose daily life consisted of supporting his family, and learning Torah. That came to a screeching halt a few years ago when a car crash caused him severe brain damage. Doctors had both good and bad news for his wife: He had survived, but now had the mental capacity of a child.

In the time that has passed, Henya has bravely risen to the occasion of raising her children, and her now child-like husband, alone. Her eldest children have done their best to contribute to their finances. More painful than their poverty, however, is their grief at having lost the father that they knew.

This tragic context has cast a dark veil over their latest simcha: The engagement of daughter Yocheved. All involved are aware of the fact that Henya is unable to pay for her daughter’s wedding, or to help her set up a home for marriage. Yocheved has started a hachnasas kallah fund with the hope of taking this burden off of her mother’s shoulders.

Pictures of her vort show one simple decoration: a line of post-it notes spelling out “eishes chayil.” Indeed this adornment is symbolic of Yocheved’s dreams: She does not long for luxury. Rather, she prays to cover the most simple expenses involved with accomplishing her goal of starting a home with dignity.

“I am asking you to please help me to get married without embarrassment,” the young woman says in somber video footage, “so that we can truly feel joy.”

Any and all contributions will bring a ray of hope into the heart of this special young woman. Donations are being accepted here.