TURNING DEEP PAIN INTO MUCH GAIN
With the loss of Reb Moshe Juravel this week, the Baltimore community lost a giant. Reb Moshe was a giant in many ways. He was truly a talmid chachom in so many areas of Torah. These included the standard scholarship in Mishna, Gemara and halacha but also included Tanach, dikduk, nikud and trup, tefillah and probably much more.
He was truly a great mechanich who cared for every talmid who passed his desk. He was a rebbe at Torah Institute for 47 years but he cared for every child, not just his fifth graders. When his talmidim left his class he continued to be concerned for them. He loved Torah and he loved life. Torah was his life and he grabbed onto every moment of it. As his health continued to decline he insisted on teaching; he needed it for his welfare. Rabbi Hirsch related that the final time he came to school to give a lesson on the Parsha, he came in completely white “we were not sure he was going to make it but as the lesson continued his color was restored and he already looked better.”
He valued the opportunity to teach Torah to others. Not only to children but to every person who was interested in learning.
Reb Moshe once approached me regarding TableTalk pointing out that there is space in the margins to print a Parsha riddle that could be answered the next issue or in the margins of the back page. There was no space or time to be lost.
The following thought is brought in many seforim. When a tzadik passes on, his greatness stays behind in this world for others to take.
There was one outstanding quality that Reb Moshe possessed; grab every moment of opportunity to grow, to learn, to teach, to share with others. I personally gained so much from this quality of his and now that he is no longer with us this great gift is in jeopardy. Who will inspire us to grab every opportunity that comes our way to utilize it in growing towards Ha-Shem and towards His Torah?
To this point Reb Yitzi and I have undertaken, with HaShem’s help, to launch CarpoolTalk. The idea is a very simple. We have a phone number that can be called from any phone which offers the option of choosing various choices; a Mitzvah dilemma, a “Wonders Of Hashem’s Creation” (science) piece and a story. These choices will come from TableTalks going back to 2017. There will also be an option for an advanced dilemma for the sophisticated and longer carpools. Through this service, every member of our community who participates in carpooling will be able to utilize those special precious moments that we have with our children and their friends engaged in fun, meaningful and educational conversation!
May this be an iluy for Reb Moshe and for a zechus to our beautiful community.
The number to reach this service can be found at the end of this week’s answer to last week’s dilemma.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind