The Steipler Gaon zt”l, a leader of religious Jewry until 1985, the year of his death, believed that performing the mitzvah of hachnasas kallah protects a terminally ill person from death.  He reasoned that the order of the three precepts was selected to teach us that engaging in the mitzvah of hachnasas kallah could serve as a barricade to protect the sick from death.  When the chief rabbi of Belgium, HaRav Chaim Kreisworth, zt”l,  was very sick, he visited the Steipler to receive his brachot and advice.  The Steipler advised him to undertake the mitzvah of hachnassas kallah and marry off needy kallas.  Rav Chaim followed the advice, recovered miraculously, and lived to the age of eighty-two.

Wedding

Between an Orphan and a Convert

►  Kallah converted with her mother 15 years ago.

►  Kallah’s step-father converted 17 years ago.

►  Kallah’s parents married 9 years ago.

►  Chasan lost his father 15 years ago.

  Help to make the Chupah a

reality!

The Kallah was three years old when she became Jewish. Deserted by her father before birth, she and her mother were left to face life’s challenges alone. In encountering life’s daily hardships, her mother stumbled upon Judaism and found herself drawn to the beauty and comfort of its wisdom and truth. Her curiosity sparked, she explored Torah more and more until she was convinced that it offered the right path for her. Her pure and unwavering commitment to Torah ultimately led her courageously to shed her non-Jewish past and to begin her life anew as a Jewess, together with her three year old daughter.

About nine years ago, she had the z’chus to meet Reb. Yehonasan Easton. He, too, had been born to non-Jewish parents, both of whom had been ministers. While in university, he began to learn about Judaism and 17 years ago, he accepted upon himself all 613 mitzvos. When Reb. Yehonasan’s path crossed with that of the mother of the kallah, they learned that they had independently discovered the path of Hashem and had turned away from their non-Jewish pasts. They decided to marry and to travel together along Derech Hashem. Nine years ago, they began building a home of Torah, good deeds and kindness. They moved from New Jersey to Brooklyn to Montreal and, finally, five and a half years ago, to Eretz Yisroel. Each leg of their journey has been burdened with almost insurmountable challenges, but also many simchas. During their marriage, they have been blessed with three more children.

Today, the Easton family is about to celebrate one of its greatest simchas, the marriage of their daughter to an orphan of 15 years – an orphan whose commitment to learning Torah is surpassed only by his dedication to improving his middos. The blend of the kallah’s strong but yet delicate nature with the chasan’s sensitive but unwavering commitment to Torah creates a unique union.

Shiduch from Shamayim
Having never contacted a shadchan for his daughter, Reb. Yehonasan is convinced that this shiduch can only be from shamayim. The chasan lost his father when he was approximately five years old – both chasan and kallah grew up without their father in the house. Currently, the chasan works part-time and learns half-a-day. With such a wonderful shiduch between an orphan and a giyores, Reb. Yehonasan and his wife want to give the new couple all the basics they might need to avoid beginning their life together with worries about parnassa.

Self-Sacrifice and Spiritual Growth
Reb Yehonasan, his wife, and the kallah traveled countless times from America to Canada to Eretz Yisroel, in their quest for the true path of Avodas Hashem. When Reb Yehonasan studied in kollel for three and a half years in Yerushalyim, the family sacrificed literally everything to advance Reb. Yehonasan’s studies – he traveled abroad to collect funds and borrowed money just to make ends meet. Although today, Reb. Yehonasan holds a full-time job, having no family to help support him and having accumulated many debts from his years in kollel, Reb. Yehonasan is grappling to purchase basic necessities for his family. There is no extra left to make a chasuna for his daughter.

Helping a Gair Tzedek = 46 Mitzvos

Let us help the kallah and chasan to build a home together so that, please G-d, they, in turn, will have the opportunity to give their children, the joy and privilege of growing up in a Jewish home, with both a father and a mother – a privilege that neither of them knew.