Adapted from: Living Chessed by Rabbi Avrohom Asher Makovsky

Moshe Walkin, a 21-year-old bachur from Lakewood, was learning at Yeshivas Mir in Yerushalayim. A few days before Lag B’Omer, his close friend ran to him bursting with excitement. “You’re not going to believe it!” he said. “I got a few VIP passes to pour the oil for lighting the Toldos Aharon bonfire in Meron!”

Moshe and his friends would be up-front and close to the center of the action. They would be able to pour the oil that the Toldos Aharon Rebbe would light!

The boys reserved an apartment in Meron and thought about little else but their thrilling upcoming adventure. However, Moshe got a call from his father, Rabbi Aharon Walkin, that would change the plan. Reb Aharon had been putting in a concerted effort to obtain all the permits needed during those times of Covid-restricted travel to come to Yerushalayim and pay a long overdue visit to his elderly father. He would be arriving right before Lag B’Omer and he wanted his son to come with him to visit his zeidy.

Moshe was disappointed. Instead of spending the night with his friends in Meron, he would be spending it with his father and Zeidy in Yerushalayim. However, Moshe knew what his priorities had to be. He told his father about his arrangements for Meron, adding, “But of course I’ll stay with you, Totty.”

On Erev Lag B’Omer, at 5 p.m., Reb Aharon arrived at Ben Gurion airport. He took a cab directly to his father’s apartment in Yerushalayim, where he and Moshe spent several hours. At about 10 p.m., Reb Aharon told Moshe that he would drive with him to Meron to catch the remainder of the celebration.

However, by the time they arrived in Meron, several hours later, the police were stationed along the road turning everyone back. “No one is allowed into the area,” they were told. The Walkins had no choice but to return to Yerushalayim. They awoke the next morning to the shocking news. The combination of overcrowding and limited exits had resulted in causing the people to lose their balance, fall upon and crush each other. The epicenter of the tragedy was the Toldos Aharon bonfire, and the two friends with whom Moshe was supposed to share the experience — Dovi Steinmetz and Yossi Kohn— had perished in the crush.

The Torah gives us two ways to merit arichus yamim. One is the mitzvah of kibbud av v’eim. As Reb Aharon so eloquently stated, it took two hefty doses of this mitzvah to save Moshe’s life. “For me, leaving Lakewood to go visit my father in Eretz Yisrael was very hard to arrange. For my son, he had to give up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was with magnificent mesiras nefesh that he did kibbud av v’eim for me. With these two zechusim, he merited to be saved.”

No matter what happens, we have to look for the ray of light Hashem will always show us. In our present times, we often see it against the darkness, but we will soon arrive at the time when Hashem’s light will forever drive the darkness away.