Leiby Kletzky
Leiby KletzkyArutz Sheva

Many came to pay their respects at the home of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who is presently sitting shiva [the week-long period of mourning -Ed.] for his wife, Batsheva, who died during Sukkot.

Among those who called on the Rabbi was Nachman Kletzky, the father of Leiby Kletzky, who was abducted and brutally murdered in New York earlier this year.

Upon meeting the rabbi, Kletzky shared his own experience of sitting shiva for his only son, and the thousands of letters of condolence from around the world he and his wife received expressing sympathy for their sorrow.

Kletzky told Rabbi Kanievsky, that the sentiments expressed in these moving letters, including the Rabbis own letter, had empowered them to go on.

"To accept the hard judgment God has brought upon us... thanks to you we have chosen not to sink into sorrow and despair," he said.

Kletzky told Rabbi Kanievsky that moment he heard about the passing of the Rebbetzin Batsheva he decided to fly to Israel to comfort the rabbi, and explained that it was the least he could do to show his deep gratitude for the rabbi’s own encouragement and support.

For his own part, Rabbi Kanievsky momentarily broke away from his own grief to comfort Kletzky, who has entered the lesser year-long stages of mourning, saying his son was the reincarnation of a high soul who had finished its duties of tikun haolam [ontological rectification -Ed.] in this world.

"We cannot know the accounts of heaven," Rabbi Kanievesky added, giving Kletzky a blessing that he should have more children.