Steipler Gaon — The Secret of the Mitzvah of Hachnasat Kallah: How It Adds 22 Years to One’s Life

Steipler Gaon — The Secret of the Mitzvah of Hachnasat Kallah: How It Adds 22 Years to One’s Life

One day, Gaon Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth (the Chief Rabbi of Antwerp) fell ill and traveled to Israel to see the Steipler Gaon (Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, zt”l), asking him to pray on his behalf. He was seriously ill, and the doctors had given him two weeks to live. After hearing the patient’s story, Rav Steipler said: “We must understand what we are taught by the words we recite in Shacharit: “These are the deeds whose fruits a person enjoys in this world, while the principal reward remains reserved for him in the World to Come: honoring one’s father and mother, acts of kindness, attending the synagogue in the morning and evening, hospitality, visiting the sick, Hachnasat Kallah (helping poor brides arrange their weddings), participating in funerals, concentration in prayer, making peace between people—and Torah study surpasses them all.” (Shabbat 127a) Think about why the mitzvah of “Hachnasat Kallah” is placed between “visiting the sick” and “participating in funerals.” After all, according to the natural order of things, illness may be followed by death and burial.” “But the Talmud is teaching us here,” said the Steipler, revealing one of life’s secrets to his guest, “that helping poor brides can interrupt the progression from illness to death. A person who helps poor brides arrange their weddings thereby averts the carrying out of a death sentence against himself.” It is known that Gaon Rabbi Kreiswirth took the great teacher’s advice to heart. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to helping orphaned brides marry and assumed responsibility for all the expenses involved, including the purchase of an apartment. He undertook this mitzvah with complete self-sacrifice and was indeed granted a long life. He lived for another 22 years instead of the two weeks the doctors had given him. (Based on a lesson from “The Power of Tehillim” at the synagogue on Bronnaya Street, “When 22 Years of Life Are Added”)