Good In-Tuition

[Music] every year arer shash Rabbi Steven ammon's wife would go with her father and siblings to the Staten Island Jewish cemetery to visit her mother's Kev one year she knew she wasn't going to be able to make it that day so a couple of weeks before Rashana she was driving with her husband RAB Steven Ammon from D New Jersey where they live to Brooklyn to visit their grandkids we were on Route 440 there's an exit four that's Arthur Kill Road that road leads to the cemetery so as I saw the exit approaching I asked my wife should we just pull off the exit and you could do your thing now so she said yeah maybe it's a good idea they pulled off the exit they got to the cemetery the cemetery was completely empty they were able to pull up right next to the Kev they get out they start doing Mrs Ammon daved for a while rabie Ammon had finished already he was waiting for her to finish and as he was waiting he looked around and he notices how a hearse and a couple of cars pull into the cemetery and stop a couple AR Rose behind them all of a sudden one of the people called me over they said we need a number 10 for kades so I told my wife I'm going to go and I'll be back shortly I helped them put the coffin into the grave and they said kades after that they started leaving I said one minute you didn't bury him so they said don't worry we got the tractor does that we don't we don't do that and they literally left well I remember learning in Yeshiva that this scenario was also referred to as M Mitzvah that M Mitzvah was not just if there was literally nobody to bury but if you had relatives who walked away you sort of also had nobody to bury and this was called the M Mitzvah so I went to the person seeing the tractor and said do you mind if you give me a shovel and I'll do it for you you could go and I'll bury the person I says I don't mind Rabbi Ammon spent an hour and a half finishing the burial until the entire grave was covered with dirt he turned to put the marker that the family had left and stick it into the grave but right before he did that he took note of the name and wrote it down the whole way driving to Brooklyn I was thinking like why why why I wasn't planning to be here strange funeral pops up in the middle of nowhere and I'm number 10 and then I'm the guy who's burying him it it seems weird RAB decided to make some calls make some inquiries and find out a little bit more about who this guy was one of the people Rabbi Ammon called was his mentor and rebi the late Rabbi Herman nuer the executive director of ner the Yesa that he went to but when he told him the person's name RAB nuer almost dropped the phone RAB nuer told him 40 years ago when you were growing up in Seattle Washington and you enrolled in nus your father had lost his job in those days it was quite different than nowadays you paid for long distance calls air was expensive I remember the ticket cost $300 one way we got the 300 flew to Yesa and of course the next problem is tuition Rabbi newberger decided to try to help out and find a person who can supplement Rabbi Steven ammon's tuition RAB nuer told RAB Ammon on the phone the person who ended up paying and sponsoring your tuition for all your years in yiva was the fellow you had just buried the other day it went full circle that uh this person who paid for my education and while I was in Yesa I remember learning this I was able to repay him uh and give him appropriate burial one of the Holy Masters once said we describe asem remembers all that's forgotten so the said when you forget Hashem remembers but when you remember Hashem forgets when you remember favors and that you do for other people and you expect them to do it in return you hold them accountable for it you remind them about it Hashem says well if you remember I can forget about it when you forget what you do for others you help them and you let them off the hook you don't expect anything in return Hashem says I'm a I will remember that decades later when everybody has forgotten I will make sure that you will be repaid and full [Music]