Oy, Moishe

The Maggid of Mezritch once said: “If only people would kiss the Sefer Torah with the same love that my teacher the Baal Shemtov, kissed the children whom he took to cheder.”

– Hayom Yom 16 Tammuz

The first time I heard of Moishe was when my son came home from preschool with something nice that he made. He was very proud when he showed it to us and he told us that he also showed it to Moishe.

A while later, when he was ‘Shabbos Tatty’, we asked him if he wants to carry my hat that he would wear to Yeshiva. “Oh no,” he answered, “I need to wear it for Moishe.”

Sometime later I was walking down the street and I heard loud honking. I ignored it but I saw that my son was jumping up and down, smiling, and waving. I turned and saw a bus driver in an Oholei Torah bus waving while calling my son’s name. “That’s Moishe!” my son explained to me excitedly.

A few weeks later, we were in shul and I heard a loud “Good Shabbos Shloime! Oolala, you look so nice in your Shabbos suit!” and for the first time I met Moishe Abelsky. Of course, when we got home from shul, that was the first thing my wife heard about.

And so it went with all of my boys. I still remember my youngest dancing excitedly with Moishe at my brother’s wedding.

I remember speaking to a friend who lives out of town and telling him one of the best things about living in Crown Heights is the Chasiddishe busdrivers, “you just can’t imagine what it does for the children,” I told him.

When I began to teach in Oholei Torah and I took my class on trips on his bus, I would sit in the front and have conversations with Moishe about anything and everything. He was so comfortable to talk to and to be with, and everyone in Yeshiva knew it.

I remember speaking to my younger brother who ate at Moishe’s house on Shabbos many times as a bocher. We both agreed that Moishe is special because he is someone you could really talk to.

Yes. If you were a little boy excitedly going on the bus for the first time or a little boy who “wasn’t in the mood” for school that day, you could talk to Moishe.

If you were a mother who was nervous about her son getting off for the first time at Bubby’s house, or if you were a mother waiting for the bus in the snow the day after a storm you could talk to Moishe.

If you were a prinicipal, a secretary, a melamed, a morah, a fellow bus driver or anyone else, you knew you could count on Moishe.

Every time I would walk in the street and pass Moishe, as we would nod to each other, I would really feel good that there is someone like Moishe in the world and that me and my family knew him.

Oy Moishe, we are going to miss you terribly. But I know how you would respond to that. You would think about it for a minute with a serious face. Then you would make with your hand and say “Nah, we’ll soon be together again, you’ll see…”

May it be very soon,
Zev Weinstein
Teacher of Kittah Vov at Oholei Torah