A Father’s Question in a Dream Changed Everything

The following touching story was shared in the Shabbat Kodesh supplement of Yated Ne’eman. It’s the kind of story that gives you chills—but also warms your heart with a sense of how deeply connected we truly are, even across worlds.

Rabbi Avraham Gartner passed away just before Yom Kippur, and his funeral was held after the holy day. That night, his daughter, Mrs. Eichenstein, had a vivid dream. In it, the phone rang—and to her surprise, it was her father on the other end of the line.

In the dream, she didn’t remember that he had passed. She spoke to him naturally, asking how he was and if he needed anything. But her father didn’t answer any of her questions. He simply asked, in a calm and serious voice:
“What will be with the tallit?”
And then the call ended.

When she woke up, she didn’t think much of the dream. But during the shiva (the traditional seven-day mourning period), she shared it with her siblings. At first, it seemed puzzling—what could he have meant?

One of the brothers, Rabbi Dov, decided to look into it. He went to their mother and asked: “Which tallit was Abba buried with?”

His mother explained: “Not long ago, your father bought himself a new, high-quality tallit. But it was heavy and a bit uncomfortable, so he went back to using a lighter one that belonged to his son-in-law, Rabbi Aharon Ungar. When it came time for the funeral, we searched for the new tallit but couldn’t find it in time. So we buried him with the one he had used recently—your brother-in-law’s tallit.”

Rabbi Dov was deeply moved. “So Abba was buried in something that wasn’t really his,” he said. “Now I understand why he came to us in a dream, asking about it. He wanted his own tallit.”

The family acted quickly. They approached the son-in-law and purchased the tallit so that it would belong fully to their father—even in the World to Come.

Suddenly, that one mysterious question—“What will be with the tallit?”—made perfect sense. And it revealed something profound: even after a person leaves this world, their dignity, their ownership, and their spiritual needs still matter.

In Jewish tradition, we are taught that honoring the deceased means taking care of their needs as best we can, even after their passing. According to the Machaneh Ephraim, a respected halachic authority, a deceased person still has ownership over items meant for them. So this act wasn’t just symbolic—it was real, meaningful, and restorative.

And perhaps even more incredible: the fact that Rabbi Gartner was given permission from above to appear in a dream, to gently raise the issue, so his family could set things right.

For anyone beginning to explore Jewish life and belief, this story touches on something essential—our lives are not just physical journeys, but spiritual ones too. And the bonds of love, responsibility, and respect don’t end at the grave.

They continue—sometimes in dreams, sometimes in prayers, and sometimes in the quiet decision to do the right thing, even when no one’s watching.