There are more to Yahrzeit's than meet the eye

Pictured: Mordecai Richler

Today was Chayale's birthday (I'll post photos etc. iy"h tomorrow night).

A bunch of friends came over, and we ate and chatted for awhile. One of them mentioned that he had been downtown in Montreal, and bumped into the director of the upcoming film 'Barney's version' starring Dustin Hoffman and shooting in Montreal.

The director, seeing someone in full Chassidic garb, had said that he needed actors. They had spoken awhile and then my friend took his number.

This triggered a memory from my last year of Yeshiva in Montreal. I shared it at the party and I'll share it here.

Let me preface by saying that Barney's version is based on a book by Mordecai Richler. Mordecai is considered one of the greatest Canadian authors in history, and is my second cousin.

He was the black sheep of the large Richler family, particularly because for some reason or the other he was a terribly rebellious child and grew up with a seething hatred for religion and religious Jew sin particular. His first book (and the book Barney's version) was called 'the apprentinceship of Duddy Kravits' and was also made into a Hollywood movie in the '70s.

Both books (actually most of his books) are horribly biased against religious Jews, making us out to be seemingly ignorant hypocrites and bigots (he is correct about some of us though).

Anyway, he married a Goy, and was shunned by his family pretty much until his death. No one from the family went to the funeral. Or so I'm told.

I saw him once. When my Bubby o"h passed away, he came to my parents house for a Shiva. I was a little starstruck and remember him as a cynical guy who seemed kinda nice. I thought it was kind of him to show up. I mean, he had no connection to her...

A couple years later, I was in yeshiva Montreal as a 19-year-old Bochur.

Two friends of mine, Michoel Harari and Levi Welton, had never been to the Montreal viewpoint at the top of the mountain, and so after planning to take them for ages, one Shabbos at the end of the winter, I convinced them to walk with me to see the panoramic view of my beautiful city.

It took us a couple of hours and we were at Beaver Lake. Just a little more of a walk to get to the viewpoint (and the summit). In order to get there, the final path runs along a narrow road, and the path is actually on top of these cliffs which are on the side of the road. On the left of us was the Mount Royal cemetary, a non-Jewish graveyard and below us to the right was the road with its steep turns and zooming cars.

We trudged along the path which eventually turned into the cemetary for about 30 steps, after which it returned to the road.

I had never been this way before and as we passed through the graveyard, I noticed a 'Richler' on one of the tombstones. I looked closer and saw that it was Mordecai Richler's grave.

When I mentioned this to the others, Michoel (always inspirational) told me that it was Hashgacha Protis that we had come here. First of all, we had pushed off this walk for weeks, add to the fact that I usually took the path on the other side of the road and it is not coincidence.

We decided to Daven Mincha there (it was getting dark). So we Davened at the grave of Mordecai Richler, and Michoel said a Dvar Torah.

We moved on and made it home Motzei Shabbos. It was fun.

Sunday afternoon I bumped into my father and told him the story. He stopped and thought a moment. Then he went downstairs to the computer. He returned a few moments later, shaken.

"Yesterday was Mordecai Richler's Yahrzeit!" He told me.