EZZY Is Laid to Rest

J-Wire
April 3, 2014

http://www.jwire.com.au/news/ezzy-is-laid-to-rest/41729

The funeral Pic: crownheightinfo.org

Ezzy Kestecher, scheduled to appear in court in June on sexual abuse charges, was found deceased in his Melboure apartment last week. Rabbi Meir Kluwgant attended the funeral…

This past Sunday I attended the funeral of Aaron “Ezzy” Kestecher Z”L, a young man of 28 years who was found deceased in his apartment.

His coffin (in Hebrew Aron) was situated at the front of a room that was filled to capacity with men and woman of all ages who had come to pay their last respects.

There was an eery silence, almost white noise, as the background to the cries and sobs from both sides of the mechitza (partition separating the men from the women).

The prayers were short, the eulogy direct but eloquently delivered, and as I looked around the room I noticed a hotchpotch of faces and expressions. Present were those who kept their doors and homes open to Ezzy throughout his short but tumultuous life; along side them and dispersed throughout the room were those who had rejected him outright, and locked him out from the community and its facilities; and there was a large contingency of his friends, his contemporaries, people he mingled and hanged with, friends who had been with him almost to the very bitter end.

Whatever the realities behind his passing, there was clearly a community in shock, mourning his death, and quietly wondering ‘what could I have done differently’? ‘Could this have been avoided’?

Many people approached the cloth covered box to ask Mechila (forgiveness); I was among those who transported him to his temporary resting place while arrangements are being made for his transport to Israel, which is slated to be his final resting place.

Sadly, I have been to and presided over many funerals, yet I have never attended one where there were so many actual mourners in the same room, all silent.

The words of the pastor who delivered the eulogy, quoting from our holy Torah – “Vayidom Aharon”, “and Aron was silent” reverberated and bounced across the room. Yes Aaron “Ezzy” Kestecher is silent, and we will miss him, We only pray that his memory be a blessing and that lessons be learned, so that we never have to abide a tragedy of this nature, ever again.

Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant