Leib Kellerberg, an elderly Jew who attended the Levi Yitzchok shul regularly and was a member of the Collel Tiferes Zekeinim, had a very special request. He asked if he could hear the megillah at the hospital in which he was staying at the time.
Rabbi Cohen, with the help of community supporter Albert Shimoni, arranged an entry permit for the hospital, and very late that night he and his brother, fellow shliach Mordechai Cohen, hurried to Leib’s bedside.
Leib was overjoyed to see them, and he asked to hear the megillah. The doctors, who were in the room at the time, reported an immediate improvement in his situation. In the end, the visit lasted longer than originally planned, and the Cohen brothers remained at Leib’s bedside until 4a.m., when they concluded with a Chassidic dance and a blessing for his recovery.
Leib asked if he could give the shluchim some mishloach manos and matanos l’evyonim, and he made the effort of giving them a gift of kosher food so that he could observe the mitzvos of Purim.
Later on, on Friday night, the shluchim received the sad news from the hospital that Leib had passed away after he had fallen in the hospital and received a blow to the head. Rabbi Cohen later said that Leib had managed to observe the mitzvos of Purim during the final hours of his life in the merit of his determination that the shluchim should read the megillah to him.
Rabbi Cohen added that during the visit, the shluchim had read “Shema Yisrael” with him, and his soul had departed in purity. Leib had also said during the visit, “For sixty years I didn’t follow the correct lifestyle, but now I would like G-d to give me more time to live so that I can return in true repentance.”
“Who knows?” added Rabbi Cohen. “Maybe our entire shlichus in Kazakhstan for the past fourteen years has only been for that moment, in which we were able to help this old man observe the mitzvos of Purim during his last hours on Earth”
Leib was laid to rest by the Chevra Kaddisha in the Jewish cemetery in Almaty, close to the resting-place of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson, the Rebbe’s father. May his memory be blessed.
