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Aviva Cantor
Bruria Junior High
Elizabeth, NJ
Bruria Junior High
Elizabeth, NJ
 | |  |
A Fast for a Family
One crisp fall morning in a small Polish town, Selig Wildman got ready to leave for
war. Only a week ago had he been told that he was being drafted into the Polish army.
He hugged each of his four children. He explained to them that Tatty had to go away
for a little while. They were all young and begged him to stay. He promised them he
would return soon. As he was walking out the door, he whispered to his wife Nechama,
“It will only be a year, no more, no less.” With those last words he was out the door. He
never said good-bye because good-bye means forever.
Selig fought in the Poland-Soviet War with the minimal amount of training he had
received. Within a few weeks he was taken as a prisoner by the Russians. He was
sent off to desolate Siberia alone. No one ever knew what happened to him. He was
not found dead. For twenty years he was proclaimed missing.
Back home in Poland, Nechama Wildman was left alone. She had children to care
for and no husband to support her. The children had grown so much in the eighteen
years Selig was gone. The house was too small. Nechama barely had enough money
to make ends meet.
Nechama could not remarry. There was no evidence that her husband was dead.
She needed a proper source that he was gone forever and not just lost. Inside her
heart she could tell that he was really alive. Hope could not escape her. Out of love
she was in search of discovering a way to find him.
A letter arrived addressed to Nechama. The message was from her relatives in
Rochester, New York. They wrote that they would be honored if Nechama would come
live with them. It was a good opportunity for the children. The only worry in her mind
was what would happen when Selig returned home. With that thought she wrote him a
long note. She apologized to him for leaving. She explained that she was moving in
with her family in Rochester. If he were ever to return from war, he should come find
her. She left the letter on the table by the door.
After finishing her task, she went off to buy five tickets for a boat to America. She
packed up her family, and they left Poland. They were off to a country to find a life, to a
country where they would be so far away from what they were truly missing.
By the time the family settled in Rochester it had been nineteen years since
Nechama last saw Selig. She decided to go to a local Rabbi to ask what she could do
to help the situation. She told him that she needed her husband to come home.
Nechama had spent days and nights praying, but that did not seem to help. The Rabbi
told her to fast every Monday and Thursday. Nechama abstained from eating on those
two days for months. She did not know why this would help, but she needed something
in which to believe.
After twenty years as a prisoner in Siberia, Selig Wildman was sent back home to
Poland. He opened the door to his house and found that his family was gone. He came
across the note that Nechama had left him. He read it over twice before running out the
door. Selig immediately got on a boat and left for America.
Once in the United States, it took him only a few days to locate the house where
Nechama and her relatives were living. After twenty years of being the one missing,
Selig had found his wife and children. The fast of Nechama had reunited her family.
One crisp fall morning in a small Polish town, Selig Wildman got ready to leave for
war. Only a week ago had he been told that he was being drafted into the Polish army.
He hugged each of his four children. He explained to them that Tatty had to go away
for a little while. They were all young and begged him to stay. He promised them he
would return soon. As he was walking out the door, he whispered to his wife Nechama,
“It will only be a year, no more, no less.” With those last words he was out the door. He
never said good-bye because good-bye means forever.
Selig fought in the Poland-Soviet War with the minimal amount of training he had
received. Within a few weeks he was taken as a prisoner by the Russians. He was
sent off to desolate Siberia alone. No one ever knew what happened to him. He was
not found dead. For twenty years he was proclaimed missing.
Back home in Poland, Nechama Wildman was left alone. She had children to care
for and no husband to support her. The children had grown so much in the eighteen
years Selig was gone. The house was too small. Nechama barely had enough money
to make ends meet.
Nechama could not remarry. There was no evidence that her husband was dead.
She needed a proper source that he was gone forever and not just lost. Inside her
heart she could tell that he was really alive. Hope could not escape her. Out of love
she was in search of discovering a way to find him.
A letter arrived addressed to Nechama. The message was from her relatives in
Rochester, New York. They wrote that they would be honored if Nechama would come
live with them. It was a good opportunity for the children. The only worry in her mind
was what would happen when Selig returned home. With that thought she wrote him a
long note. She apologized to him for leaving. She explained that she was moving in
with her family in Rochester. If he were ever to return from war, he should come find
her. She left the letter on the table by the door.
After finishing her task, she went off to buy five tickets for a boat to America. She
packed up her family, and they left Poland. They were off to a country to find a life, to a
country where they would be so far away from what they were truly missing.
By the time the family settled in Rochester it had been nineteen years since
Nechama last saw Selig. She decided to go to a local Rabbi to ask what she could do
to help the situation. She told him that she needed her husband to come home.
Nechama had spent days and nights praying, but that did not seem to help. The Rabbi
told her to fast every Monday and Thursday. Nechama abstained from eating on those
two days for months. She did not know why this would help, but she needed something
in which to believe.
After twenty years as a prisoner in Siberia, Selig Wildman was sent back home to
Poland. He opened the door to his house and found that his family was gone. He came
across the note that Nechama had left him. He read it over twice before running out the
door. Selig immediately got on a boat and left for America.
Once in the United States, it took him only a few days to locate the house where
Nechama and her relatives were living. After twenty years of being the one missing,
Selig had found his wife and children. The fast of Nechama had reunited her family.