Excerpts from a commentary by Yosef Ben Shlomo HaKohen, \"My Mother\'s Legacy,\" published May 5, 2002 by Root and Branch:
\"I did not grow up in a traditionally-observant home... After two years in [an afternoon] Hebrew school, Rabbi Gabriel Beer, the rabbi of the synagogue, managed to persuade my parents to send me to HILI, a full-time yeshiva day school... I enrolled in the day school and began to study Torah in-depth. The knowledge and insights that I gained from my yeshiva education were a valuable resource when I later began to study Torah...
\"Rabbi Beer and his family later moved to Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem. I reconnected with him when I moved to Bayit Vegan about twelve years ago. When we were together at one Shabbos meal, he told me that he had made a unique and special effort to persuade my parents to take me out of public school and send me to the yeshiva day school. When I asked him why he put so much effort into my Torah education, he replied, \"I greatly admired the acts of \'chesed\' (loving-kindness) that your parents performed in the community, especially for the elderly. As I got to know your parents, I decided that a boy who grew up in a home devoted to chesed would flourish in a Torah environment\".
\"I was stunned by his reply. I then realized that the good deeds of my parents had led to my getting a Torah education - an education which would change the course of my life. As our sages say, \'How great is the power of the righteous, how great is the power of \'tzedakah\' - helping the needy, and how great is the power of those who perform acts of loving-kindness\' .\"
\"I did not grow up in a traditionally-observant home... After two years in [an afternoon] Hebrew school, Rabbi Gabriel Beer, the rabbi of the synagogue, managed to persuade my parents to send me to HILI, a full-time yeshiva day school... I enrolled in the day school and began to study Torah in-depth. The knowledge and insights that I gained from my yeshiva education were a valuable resource when I later began to study Torah...
\"Rabbi Beer and his family later moved to Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem. I reconnected with him when I moved to Bayit Vegan about twelve years ago. When we were together at one Shabbos meal, he told me that he had made a unique and special effort to persuade my parents to take me out of public school and send me to the yeshiva day school. When I asked him why he put so much effort into my Torah education, he replied, \"I greatly admired the acts of \'chesed\' (loving-kindness) that your parents performed in the community, especially for the elderly. As I got to know your parents, I decided that a boy who grew up in a home devoted to chesed would flourish in a Torah environment\".
\"I was stunned by his reply. I then realized that the good deeds of my parents had led to my getting a Torah education - an education which would change the course of my life. As our sages say, \'How great is the power of the righteous, how great is the power of \'tzedakah\' - helping the needy, and how great is the power of those who perform acts of loving-kindness\' .\"