In Loving Remembrance

 


Dear Friends,

It is important to me to let you know when we are dealing with a significant loss.  This column is dedicated to the memory of Hazel Solomon whose funeral was on Friday, May 12.  Hazel was one of our Bar/Bat Mitzvah tutors, led services, helped with the Torah ritual as a gabbai(literally "treasurer" helping guard our treasure, the Torah).

May 12 corresponded to the 36th day of the counting of the omer.  As some of us know, 36 is double chai (2X18) and 18 is Chai in Hebrew letters.  Each Hebrew letter has a numerical value and chai means life so double chai means double life.  This is all called gematria for those who want to look it up online.  (check out the following link)


Hazel, with whom I stood on the bima every Saturday for 25 years, was a treasure to our congregation.  Her love of Judaism and the Jewish people was inspirational. When I think of Hazel's life and the lives of the students she touched, I am in awe.

Hazel loved children and once a week would have them come to her home where she and her loving husband, Ray, would always make the students feel at ease and like they belonged.  Hazel would teach them not only the prayers, not only what they meant, but taught them how to lead services.  In short, although firm with her students, she was amazingly caring. If a student needed an aid to learn or something transliterated into English letters, she made sure the student received what they had to have in order to succeed.

I treasure the recollection of her saying that G-d hears prayers in every language as long as their prayers are sincere and from the heart.  Everything Hazel did for all of us in the congregation was filled with integrity and heartfelt. She was a consummate role model for devotion to that which is sacred.

So...you might be asking...what is the significance of double chai and the 36th day of counting the omer?  She used her life to give others life.  In Jewish life we are also taught that there are 36 righteous people in each generation but we never know who they are.

I want to disagree with the tradition that we don't know who they are.  Hazel was one of them.

When we needed someone to lead services, if Hazel called them to help, they couldn't say no.  She was considered our "godfather/godmother" since she would make an offer that no one could refuse.  Her offer was that those she recruited would have the opportunity to lead the congregation in prayer and what was more sacred than that.

I would guess that she, Ray, and G-d are probably worshipping on Shabbat today and if I know Hazel, she has recruited G-d to lead the service since even G-d couldn't refuse an invitation from her.

She was our teacher, our friend, our mentor, and had a big and kind heart.  She will be missed but can certainly be remembered each time we show someone we care.

In loving remembrance, may Hazel's memory bless us all with the will to connect to our faith, our people, and to do kind deeds.

Her student and friend and as she would say, "her rabbi",

Rabbi Bruce Aft

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