Shlomo Kohresh: "My Cousin Fell from the Tree and Started Rolling Down the Hill"

Background:

Shlomo Kohresh, 80 years old, was born in 1939 in Yemen, into a family of six children. They lived in a small village with fewer than ten men for a minyan. When he was six, his parents divorced but remarried a year later. At age twelve, he immigrated with his family to Israel after several months of wandering in Yemen. Once in Israel, they were settled in a tent at the Atlit transit camp, later moving to Poria, and eventually settling in Yehud, where one of his brothers, a kidnapped Yemenite child, went missing. Over the years, Shlomo worked as a locksmith and later as a technician. He is a father of three and a grandfather.

Childhood Memory

"When I was six, my parents separated, and to this day, I don't know why. I just remember my mother returning to her parents' house, leaving us, three young and sad children, behind. My father worked outside the village and came home every two days. He tried his best for us, preparing food and taking care of the household. When we needed help in his absence, we turned to the neighbors, and I had an aunt in the village who cared for us. The sorrow of separation from my mother and the longing for her were very difficult, and that year is etched in my memory with great sadness. A year later, my parents remarried, and for us, the children, it was a great joy. To see my parents talking and laughing again, and to feel my mother's closeness after a long time apart, was wonderful.

"I also remember studying Torah with the mori, who would test us on our studies weekly. Anyone who didn't do well on the test was hit with a leather strap. This was done so we would learn well, and indeed all the students were good. Personally, I never received lashes with the strap.

"I also remember once, around the age of ten, I saw a non-Jew beating a Jew. As a small child, I couldn't help him. I ran quickly to call for help, and people came and rescued him. This instilled in me the understanding of how much the non-Jews hate us."

A Significant Event That Left Its Mark on Me

"As children, we often went out to climb the mountain cliffs, which are very common in Yemen. Our role was also to gather wood, and occasionally we would go with one of the adults to do so. When I was seven, we planned a trip for the next morning, but I couldn't sleep that night. My mother saw that I wasn't falling asleep and told me to sit and read Tehillim, which I did all night. In the morning, despite the fact that I hadn't slept at all, I went on the trip with the other children. At a certain point, I saw a fruit tree from afar and approached it to climb and pick its fruits. However, my attempts failed, and I stayed below. In contrast, my cousin decided to climb the tree and succeeded in reaching the top. When she tried to descend, she slipped and continued rolling down the hill to the bottom. We all started shouting and ran to the village to call for help, but unfortunately, she was later found lifeless. This painful event stayed with me for a long time as a child. In hindsight, one might speculate why I didn't fall asleep. Who knows, maybe I was meant to fall, and the Tehillim I said all night saved me from it.

"After this difficult event, it was hard for us to stay in the village, so we moved to a larger city. Compared to the small village, the city was a completely different world for us, and suddenly we saw markets and multi-story buildings, things we had never known before. Occasionally, we would go to the market and play among the stalls. One day, one of the children accidentally overturned a stall. The stall owner started chasing us, and we ran away quickly. We ran for a long time, to the very edge of the city, and only then saw that the stall owner had given up on us, and we calmed down. However, a new problem arose - it was already late, and we didn't know how to get home from the unfamiliar place. We tried to find our way until finally, someone who didn't know about our antics passed by and showed us the way back. We returned home tired and scared, after our parents had already begun searching and were waiting for us with great concern."

A Point of Learning for Life

"I remember a wedding in the village, which we celebrated for two weeks, before and after. In honor of the wedding, a cow was slaughtered, and all the village women prepared special foods. On the night of the chuppah, the men danced in one large room while the women were in another. I was six years old and wanted to enter the room where my mother was, but people grabbed me and told me I couldn't enter among the women. Even though I cried, they didn't relent, and eventually, they managed to transfer me to my father's hands. This strong emphasis on modesty, from a young age and without compromise, deeply rooted itself in me, and to this day, I cannot attend events or places where modesty is not properly maintained.

"In general, the adherence to tradition in Yemen was very strong, and even women knew all the laws. I remember how on the eve of Passover, for instance, we would go to draw water from the spring and place it in giant jugs at home to be 'mayim shelanu'. The grains of wheat were sorted one by one, and of course, children were not allowed near. The next day, the women made the matzahs - one kneaded, the second cut, and the third baked them in the oven, all within a few minutes. After two or three hours, all the matzahs were ready, and every day of the holiday, fresh matzahs were prepared."

An Individual Who Left a Strong Impression on Me

"Besides my father, who invested a great deal in me and studied Torah with me every Shabbat, the person who most influenced me was my uncle - my mother's brother. He was a wise man who knew sections of the Talmud by heart, and he was also a person of great ethics who behaved with people in a most exceptional way. Once every month or two, I would run the long kilometers from our village to his house to hear words of wisdom from him. I followed his deeds, and his special behavior left a very strong impression on me. It was a lifelong lesson to see a person who embodies both Torah and noble virtues."

A Significant Insight from Life

"To be patient. We learn from Hashem what patience is, for He endures us despite everything we do, despite all the sins and falls. If we remember this, then even in times of pressure, when the evil inclination tries to trap us even more, we will succeed in restraining ourselves and behaving appropriately."

What Has Changed Since I Turned 70

"I've stayed the same, but aging takes its toll. Over the years, I've learned to look at life in a positive light, and when you wake up this way in the morning, the whole day is good. Generally, when you look at life, you see that the world operates in cycles and that Hashem has created a kind of routine in life. There are times to break out of it at special events, whether joyful or sad, but usually, our daily lives repeat themselves. This can lead to boredom and despair, but if you fill this routine with good things, it becomes very blessed. Today, I go to sleep every night at eleven and wake up at three, and from the moment I wake, my day is full of Torah study and activity. Thank God, I have no idle moments, and I am very happy about that. Two main goals stand before me, in which I invest my life, and these are to serve Hashem and care for the family."

From My Many Years, the Most Important Thing in Life Is...

"To love life and simply live it. As known, if a person doesn't love themselves, they also can't love others. So that's the basis, to first love ourselves and our lives, and through this, also love and give to others."

What I Would Like to Pass on to Future Generations

"That they should learn from us and follow the path of the Torah. The external appearance of things sometimes changes over generations, but the Torah is eternal. Just as Abraham, our forefather, passed it on to his sons, I wish for us that all our descendants will also follow this path."

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