The Light that Does Not go Out

​   by Reb Gutman Locks   

The Light that Does Not go Out

     Two brothers from America; the one on the left had never put on tefillin before. He could not read any of the prayers in Hebrew. Although his first wife was Jewish, his current wife is not. The other brother could read the prayers in Hebrew, albeit very slowly and broken. He had put on tefillin before and he was very proud to tell me that his children went to Jewish day schools. I asked him why he had so much more Jewish education than his brother.

     He answered; “When I was here before I was married, Meir somebody picked me up at the Kotel and took me to Aish.” (A local yeshiva) He pointed to the Aish building. He studied at Aish for a few months before returning to America. It was not the most intense Jewish education you could get, but it was enough for him to know to marry a Jewish girl and to give his children a Jewish education.

     The “Meir somebody” was Meir Shuster, OB’M who used to stand at the Kotel almost all day long for many years looking for young Jewish tourists. He would take them to his hostel, Heritage House, for a few weeks free of charge and he would try to place them in yeshivas.

     What do you think happened to Meir’s neshama (soul) when that brother remembered him fondly at the Kotel saying that he went to the yeshiva and gave his children some Jewish education because of him? I’ll tell you exactly what happened to it. Although Reb Meir is gone, his work is not over. Every time someone he helped does a Jewish deed because of him, Meir’s soul goes up a little higher.

     This is the deeper meaning of, “Her lamp does not go out at night.”[i] Even in the darkest night of all, death, a righteous person’s deeds continue to lighten their soul, bringing it higher and higher, closer and closer to the brilliant Light of Hashem.