Shneur and Shaul Silverman are two Shluchim of the Rebbe. They are children, the sons of Rabbi Benjy Siverman a Shaliach of the Rebbe. Their family lives in Westchester New York where they do their holy work.
A woman called Rabbi Benjy Silverman asking him to help make final arrangements for her father that was about to pass away. The nursing home he was in called her to tell her that her father was in his last stages of life. The Rabbi received the call at the end of the day responded; “it sounds pretty urgent. I’ll pick up my kids from school and stop by to see what I could do”
The two boys were sitting in the car when their father told them “We’re stopping at a nursing home to visit a man that’s dying.” The boys relate frankly: “We definitely did not want to go there! We just wanted to go home and eat and play! When we pulled up to the home my father asked us if we want to wait in the car or go in with him. We decided to go in.”
The woman who called was there and she tells over: “When these kids came in it was adorable. It looked like they were finished.” The boys said, “We came into the man's room and said Shma Yisrael out loud even though the man was unconscious and didn’t hear but we said it anyway.”
The Rabbi said; “Then I stepped outside to talk to Esther who had called me, the daughter of the man inside, to talk about final arrangements of the funeral and the “Chevra Kadisha” (burial society). At the same time “me and my brother were saying Tehillim out loud in the room”, said Shneur the older boy.
The father came back in the room, the boys finished saying their Tehillim and they leave. Esther spent the whole weekend with her father that supposedly was about to leave this world. The rabbi relates: “I was expecting a phone call later that night or the next day asking to officiate at the funeral, but the phone call never came and I figured she asked another Rabbi who helped with the funeral arrangements” said Rabbi Silverman.
“Sure enough a year later I got a phone call from Esther, said the Rabbi. And she says, “Rabbi, can you do my father’s funeral? And I’m thinking to myself, but he passed away a year ago … where was he until now? I was completely confused but I didn’t say anything over the phone,” said the Rabbi.
The rabbi’s son relates: “That Shabbat by a Kiddush in Shul, the Daughter stood up and said: ”around a year ago the Rabbi and his sons came in to see my father and it was very obvious they did not want to be there. Nevertheless they stayed and said some prayers for him. Three days later my father woke up!”
Esther continues: ”He goes, ”I think I was in some crazy dream” and I’m like, O.K. alright tell us your story, but whatever it is, what did you hear? And he said, “first I thought I was in Temple and then I heard the voices of these little kids singing and talking to me and hten felt like I was being pulled back home.”
The Rabbi’s son continues: “And then she turned to us and she said: ”you have no idea what big impact you have on your surroundings. Even though to you it might be something small it really has a big impact on everyone around you.”
“They gave him this extra year of life. He literally came back because of something these kids were doing,” Esther relates.
The Rabbi’s son continues: “Her father had an amazing recovery and a few weeks later he came back from the hospital and he even was able to cook the whole Pesach Seder for his children and grandchildren.”
“If you were to see the way he looked three days after he woke up and then a year later you’re thinking, well he’s not going to die.” Esther relates and continues: At the end of the day every little mitzvah that you guys don’t realize is very important in the big picture. So even if you think that opening up a door for someone or asking someone if they need a siddur at temple is not a big deal to you, it is to the person you’re doing it for. And even though they’re little things, they’re big things to people who don’t have any of it”, Esther concludes.