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Text of the page (random words):
more reasonable sum to get this very expensive life saving drug fast forward to my year of aveiuls my home is a regular stop for meshulachim charity solicitors of all types sundays and weekday evenings there is a regular flow of men in black coats sometimes women as well who knock on my door seeking donations for either an institution or for themselves in our community every solicitor must present a certificate from the local rabbinate before they are authorized to solicit typically the certificate gives only a brief superficial explanation of the need it does not give much meaningful insight into the real life situation of the person then one evening seven years ago that changed an israeli gentlemen in his sixties dati but not charedi knocked on our door seeking a personal contribution he handed me his certificate and a single word glared at me gleevec he suffers from cml and is allocated by the israeli health system a partial insufficient prescription we gave him a generous contribution and wished him good health afterwards my wife and i were discussing what had just transpired and agreed we had made a mistake we should have given him enough money for a month of gleevec after all this was literally a case of saving one s life but we had no way of contacting him luckily the next year he came again and we able to properly contribute to his health and since then year after year he has returned and though his visits would last only a few minutes we have developed a bond with this lovely gentleman from israel and then the pandemic hit he did not come we wondered would we ever see him again did he survive the pandemic and then yesterday on my mother s seventh yahrzeit there was a knock on the door the gleevec man had indeed survived and he returned for his annual visit we were so happy to see him and contribute once again to his health this yahrzeit i have gained a much deeper understanding of what it means for the departed to be a meletz yosher my mother is not waiting to advocate for me after 120 years she continues to do what mother s do caring for her children every minute of every day and so she enables us to fulfill the greatest of mitzvo s year in year out helping top sustain the health of the lovey gentleman we call the gleevac man may my mother s neshama have an aliya share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook print opens in new window print like loading may 7 2021 judd lifschitz leave a comment june 1 2016 24 iyar 5776 tuesday night i returned to saying kaddish for twenty four hours on the occasion of my mother s a h second yahrzeit my observance of her yahrzeit actually began on shabbos when i served as chazzan for shachris received an aliya and on saturday night davened maariv at the amud led the service the custom of serving as the chazzan for maariv on saturday night was very important to my father z l and he was very careful to daven by the amud on the saturday night before the yahrzeit of his parents so faithful to this custom was he that he would arrange a separate private minyan on those occasions when he was prevented from serving as the chazzan due to a mourner with halachic priority various explanations are offered for the custom of leading the saturday night maariv services one of which i find to be particularly relevant to my mother a h the pnei baruch a compilation of the laws of mourning explains the custom as follows on the sabbath a person is united with his neshomo yeseira literally his additional soul which spends shabbos with the person and leaves at the conclusion of the sabbath on condition that it will return for the following sabbath on the last saturday night of a person s life the neshomo yeseira leaves but never comes back it is as if it too has died on that last saturday night of the person s life therefore explains the pnei baruch we observe it s yahrzeit by leading the maariv service on the saturday night before the anniversary of the departed s death to commemorate the death of the departed s neshomo yeseira as i pondered this explanation an obvious question arose in my mind clearly when a person passes away mid week his neshomo yeseira does not have the opportunity to return and the deceased leaves this world separated eternally from his neshomo yeseira but what happens when a person like my mother merits to be taken from this world on the sabbath itself what happens to such a departed s neshomo yeseira i concluded that a person who passes away on shabbos not only merits leaving this world on shabbos but also is blessed by the almighty to leave this world eternally joined with his or her neshomo yeseira my mother was taken from this world two years ago on friday night with her final shabbos candles flickering before her she merited leaving this world bound together with her neshomo yeseira and she is surely resident in gan eden eternally joined with her neshomo yeseira may her memory be for a blessing for all who knew her share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook print opens in new window print like loading june 2 2016 judd lifschitz leave a comment september 27 2015 erev succos 14 tishrei 5776 thirty years ago today my father morris lifschitz moshe ben nachum passed away after a long battle with colon cancer his funeral was on a sunday and because it was erev succos upon our return from the cemetery we sat shiva for a mere hour then we dressed for yom tov went to shul said kaddish and returned to my parents home for the yom tov meal we entered the sukkah and fighting back tears recited kiddush and shehechiyanu a blessing in which we express our joy for the almighty granting us the opportunity to celebrate the holiday somehow g d gave us the strength to get through that kiddush thirty years half my life without my dad there is scarcely a day that passes that i do not think of him without question he remains the greatest and most important role model and influence in my life when i approached the amud to lead neelah on yom kippur i wore his kittel and used his machzor but even if i live to be 120 i will never fill his shoes chaval al deavdin velahnmishtackchin he was an irreplaceable loss yehi zochro baruch may his memory be for a blessing share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook print opens in new window print like loading september 27 2015 judd lifschitz leave a comment may 22 2015 4 sivan 5775 last year the shavous holiday ended the shloshim period of mourning for my mother a h this year the shavous holiday which we will please g d celebrate this weekend brings to a conclusion my saying kaddish blog a fitting way to end my year s journey is with the following blessing discussed by the great halachic authority the bach at the end the laws of mourning in the tur this blessing is normally recited in the benching grace after meals in the house of a mourner during the shiva period but i believe is very appropriate as my year of mourning ends may the merciful repair this break in the wall of his people and all of israel and grant life and peace may the merciful bring joy to the mourners that they should be happy and content may the merciful comfort the mourners with the rebuilding of jerusalem together with the entire jewish people he who makes peace in high places he will make peace for us and for all of israel amen good shabbos and chag sameach share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook print opens in new window print like loading may 22 2015 judd lifschitz 2 comments may 22 2015 4 sivan 5775 last year the shavous holiday ended the shloshim period of mourning for my mother a h this year the shavous holiday which we will please g d celebrate this weekend brings to a conclusion my saying kaddish blog a fitting way to end my year s journey is with the following blessing discussed by the great halachic authority the bach at the end the laws of mourning in the tur this blessing is normally recited in the benching grace after meals in the house of a mourner during the shiva period but i believe is very appropriate as my year of mourning ends may the merciful repair this break in the wall of his people and all of israel and grant life and peace may the merciful bring joy to the mourners that they should be happy and content may the merciful comfort the mourners with the rebuilding of jerusalem together with the entire jewish people he who makes peace in high places he will make peace for us and for all of israel amen good shabbos and chag sameach share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook print opens in new window print like loading may 22 2015 judd lifschitz leave a comment may 20 2015 2 sivan 5775 since my return from israel a couple of weeks ago i accelerated my daily study of the daf yomi daily talmud study so as to complete kesubos a tractate in the talmud in time for my mother s yarziet this past shabbos i made siyum in memory of my mother at a shlaosh seudos sabbath afternoon meal at our home with my daf yomi partners it was a most appropriate and meangful way for me to conclude my year of mourning and to honor my mother a h in completing kesubos i focused on the statement of rabbi chiya on daf 111 b that states that when techiyas hamaisim resurrection of the dead occurs the saintly will arise in their clothing while some commentators understand this reference to mean actual clothing either burial shrouds or actual clothing the maharal understands this passage to refer to spiritual clothing i e the good deeds of the departed in this vein among my mother s most outstanding qualities were i her respect for her parents and ii her love for my father i am named for my maternal grandfather who died suddenly of a heart attack in his early 50s my parents had only been married a few short years at the time of his death and nonetheless they insisted that my grandmother relocate from buffalo and take up residence with them my grandmother lived with my parents for the next 30 plus years virtually my parents entire married life together until her death in 1986 my nuclear family included my grandmother who participated in everything we did vacations included my mother was clearly blessed by the almighty with a long life because of her incredible devotion to her mother my mother s love and respect for my father knew no bounds i grew up in a house in which i never heard my parents so much as raise their voices to one another they were totally devoted to each other in every respect unfortunately my father s untimely death 29 years ago was a tragedy from which my mother never fully recovered the conclusion of my siyum this past shabbos gave me a sense of closure a feeling that it is now time for me to move on and implement the many lessons i have learned over the past twelve months share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook print opens in new window print like loading may 20 2015 judd lifschitz leave a comment may 13 2015 24 iyar 5775 this evening i recited the final kaddish of my year of aveilus i hugged the gentleman next to whom i sat for the last year and returned to my regular seat to daven maariv but other than returning to my regular seat in the synagogue l will not be resuming my life as it was a year ago my mother is no longer and the intimate connection which i have shared with her over these last twelve months has ended and now i must fend for myself and find a way to maintain an everlasting relationship with my parents the end of mourning exposes a large hole in one s life one that now must be filled without the aid of ritual obligations i have come to understand that the yearlong mourning process encompasses two separate and different aspects the first and most obvious is the structure that it provides a defined system for one to pay one s respects to and demonstrate one s gratitude for their departed parent the second is the effect on the mourner as a person of spending a year of daily obligations to one s parent observing the many restrictions and performing the numerous affirmative obligations the most significant of which is saying kaddish morning afternoon and night day in day out for eleven months there was never a question never a hesitation in my mind about fulfilling my obligations as a mourning son especially with regard to saying kaddish i was committed to doing whatever it would take waking up early going to bed late leaving a day early for a business trip or coming home a day late scheduling around kaddish and leaving in the middle of a business meeting to go daven whatever was required i tried to do why because i am her son and she was for my mother how could i not our tradition teaches that one s relationship with the almighty has two dimensions in one respect g d is our master and we are placed on earth to serve him in another respect g d is our father and we are his children the year spent in mourning for a parent impresses upon the mourner what it means to be someone s child what extraordinary level of gratitude devotion and commitment a child owes to a parent and how those feelings must be translated into daily action if that is true of one s biological parent how much more so must it be true of one s spiritual parent if one turns his world upside down to say kaddish for a departed parent how much more so should one turn his world upside down to enhance his relationship with his father in heaven and so perhaps it is not correct to say that after twelve months the state of mourning ends and we resume our normal lives perhaps it is more accurate to say that hopefully when one completes a year of aveilus he leaves armed with important lessons learned that enhance his relationship with the almighty and represent not a resumption of the life that was but rather a new personal beginning share this share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook print opens in new window print like loading may 14 2015 judd lifschitz leave a comment may 11 2015 22 iyar 5775 yesterday our family gathered at the new montefiore cemetery on long island for the hakomos hamatziva unveiling for my mother a h the ceremony included recitation of tehilim psalms el moleh prayer for the departed soul kaddish and a eulogy the following are some of the thoughts which i shared yesterday with those assembled in tanach the bible and in chazal a tombstone is referred to with one of three different nouns zion a marker nefesh a soul and mazteiva a monument each represents a different aspect or purpose for what we call a tombstone a zion is a marker which identifies the location of a burial plot so that those who are in a state of holiness can avoid the area and not become defiled nefesh refers to the presence of the soul of the departed as it hovers over the grave during the weekdays the ...