During Shiva (the week-long mourning period) at the home of Rabbi Shalom Cohen, who heads the Shas Council of Torah Sages and is dean of the Porat Yosef yeshiva in Jerusalem, stories of his late wife, Yael, gave a glimpse of her greatness.
While speaking with great rabbis who came for a condolence call, the Rebbetzin’s children said that her mind was clear until the last moments of her life, and she even predicted the date of her death.
"A few days before Shavuot she asked us 'Tell me when is the 13th day of the month of Sivan, I would like to say a confession,'" said her children. The doctor in the hospital ward Hayeshua added that "I have never seen such a thing: sobriety until the last moment."
Indeed Yael Cohen passed away after a long battle with a terminal illness at Bnei Brak's Ma'ayanei Hayeshua hospital on Tuesday, the 15th day of Sivan.
“When we arrived in the morning to tell my father of our mother’s passing, we did not know how to do it,” said her children. “Even the doctor said that she did not show any signs, all of the sudden it was her time and she just died.”
Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday paid a condolence visit to Rabbi Cohen. Minister Bennett asked Rabbi Cohen to share noble stories of the Rebbetzin and heard of her willingness to sacrifice her life for the sake of the Torah.
Bennett was interested in the Rabbi’s and Rebbetzin’s life during the War of Independence and Six Day War. "We were dreamers," said the rabbi, "Nobody believed we would return to live in the Jewish Quarter."