It was very early in the morning and the sun was trying to
brighten up the dark skies. Miriam Yehudis was still in bed,
listening to the chirping of the birds. "Time to get up!
There's so much work to be done!" R' Dovid would soon be home
from shul and he would want to rush off to the kollel.
"I must get up. There's no time to waste."
She jumped out of bed and was soon busy at her chores. She
put up the kettle to boil while she set the table, cut a few
salad vegetables and sliced some bread. Then she took her
siddur. She was struck by the quiet and sighed. If
only there were some noisy children to disturb the stillness.
Three children had died in infancy but she did not despair.
"Hashem will surely help. He will bless me with children who
survive. Healthy, robust children..."
In those troubled times, it was not easy to raise a family.
Infant mortality was high. Parents also died from illness or
epidemics, leaving orphans stranded, easy prey for the long
reaching arm of the missionaries.
When R' Dovid returned home, she had not yet finished her
prayers. She looked up to see him holding the hand of a
little girl. The waif looked up at Miriam Yehudis with big,
dark, sad eyes that looked scared and unhappy.
"Who is she?" Miriam Yehudis asked when she had finished
davening.
"Coming home from shul, I heard bitter wailing. I
walked into a house and found this little girl huddled in
bed, frightened and helpless. Her parents were dead. They
must have just died from the plague." He sighed. "First thing
I did was to quiet her down. The only thing I could think of
was to bring her here. But now I must go back and tend to the
burial of her parents." R' Dovid Weingarten rushed out of the
house, leaving his wife with the little girl.
When he returned, he was surprised to find the two conversing
freely, looking quite content. He looked at his wife
questioningly and she nodded. Yes, they would keep this
little girl. She would assuage her grief over the three
children she had lost. She would dispel the sadness from
their home.
*
This turned out to be a turning point in the lives of the
Weingartens. When her neighbors saw the loving, devoted care
that Miriam Yehudis lavished upon the orphan, they brought
her some other homeless girls. Soon the couple was parenting
five little girls. They rented some rooms nearby and these
were quickly inhabited by other girls, orphan waifs whose
parents had succumbed to the plague, for whom the only
alternative was the missionary orphanage.
How many such girls could they possibly handle? wondered
Miriam Yehudis. Was there no limit to her endurance?
Shouldn't they draw the line at this point?
Where there is a will, there is plenty of siyata
dishmaya. R' Dovid encouraged his wife to persevere.
"The Gerrer Rebbe, R' Avrohom Mordechai, asks a question
about R' Chanina ben Dosa, who once wanted with all his heart
to bring something wonderful to the Beis Hamikdosh. His
problem was that he didn't have any money."
Miriam Yehudis nodded. The Midrash was familiar to her. She
filled in. "He decided to take a big stone, cut it finely,
clean and polish it, and take that to beautify the Beis
Hamikdosh. But what does that have to do with our
orphans?"
"Wait and listen. He worked very hard and soon the stone was
all ready, but he had no means to transport it to
Yerusholayim. He prayed, and suddenly, five strong men
appeared who were willing to carry it if he agreed to assist
them. Thus, the stone was delivered to the Beis Hamikdosh.
When they vanished from sight, he realized that they had been
angels."
She nodded and waited for him to get to the point. "The
Gerrer Rebbe asks how R' Chanina could have undertaken such a
project, knowing that he could not complete it? He knew he
didn't have the means to transport his gift. Was he relying
on miracles? One must not do that. The answer, he says, is
that a person must undertake whatever mitzva comes his
way. He must make every human effort in his power. The rest,
the end result, is not up to him. Hashem will help.
"The same applies here, to us. We must tackle this
mitzva and do it to the utmost of our ability. Hashem
will complete it for us."
The Weingartens did not reject any girl brought to them and
soon they were caring for fifty girls. They rented an entire
building, brought in help and taught the girls to be self
sufficient, as well. All along, they experienced tremendous
heavenly assistance in this great enterprise, which today is
housed in beautiful quarters and is still doing an admirable
job with girls from all kinds of homes, not necessarily
orphans but also from deprived backgrounds.
They were also blessed in their personal lives, for Hashem
granted them children of their own, and generations that
follow.
