זאת תהיה תורת המצורע ביום טהרתו (מצורע יד:ב)

This will be the law of the Metzora - leper on the day of his purification.

A righteous woman strolled down the streets where she chanced upon a young bocher – a teenager crying profusely.  When she asked him why he was crying, he answered. “I’m an orphan from both parents and plagued with lice. No one wants to take me into their home, they banish me from Shul, and no one has mercy to give me some food – I’m starving!” He wailed.

The woman took pity on the lice-infested bochur and invited him to her home.  She placed him in a separate room, fed him, and tediously and lovingly deloused him until he healed, grew up, and was independent enough to leave her home.

Years later, the holy Reb Yehuda Assad zt’’l heard about a woman who passed away, he called upon the Chevra Kedusha and told them that they should bring the ‘aron’ with the body inside the Beis Medrash for he wanted to eulogize this woman.

The directors from the Chevra Kedusha refused, saying it’s inappropriate to bring a woman inside the men’s Beis Medrash – they never did this before.

However, Reb Yehuda Assad insisted, and they had to obey their Rebbe.

Reb Assad also requested that his whole community should attend the funeral.  Reb Assad started crying when they brought the ‘aron’ into the Beis Medrash and said: “Rabboisi, my fellow congregants.  You all need to thank and praise this righteous woman.  Because all the talmidei chachamim in this town are in her merit.  The Yeshiva Gedola, where four-hundred bochurim learn, is in her merit…and mine and yours are all hers…”

He continued: “When I was a young bocher, an orphan from both parents, and infested with lice, this woman had mercy on me and brought me into her home…if not for her, where would I, and all of you be today?!”

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