“A GREAT AMERICAN BY BELIEF”
by poisontolibs, ©2011
(Sep. 17, 2011) — Sam, Dad, Schmuel–many names for a great man … possibly the greatest and most humble man I ever met–born to a butcher in Warsaw, Poland on November 3, 1917. Imprisoned in early 1940, he was shuffled among several concentration camps, until being sent to Sobibor in 1943. He escaped during the uprising there and spent time with the partisans until the end of the war. He eventually made his way to a displaced persons camp in the American Zone where he met and later married his DP case worker.
My Father-in-Law–my last surviving parental figure and mentor … just a couple of weeks shy of his 94th birthday, passed from this vale of tears peacefully in his sleep this morning, thus denying totalitarianism another victim. He spent the majority of his life considering himself unclean because of the things the Nazis in the camps forced him to do. No Rabbi, or other clergy of other faiths, could dissuade him of his belief he was impure. He never set foot in a Synagogue since the war, nor would he enter Yad Vashem when my wife and I took him with us on our visit to Israel in 1995. He stood outside the entrance and wept bitter tears.
Sam is the reason I started shooting off my big mouth online–first at Fox, and now in this blog created with fellow conservatives. I have been a conservative all my life, but like most, I was not active or even interested until Sam inspired me about twenty years ago to go to county commission meetings, city council meetings and NAACP events. He said we need to stop the slide toward fascism our political system was trending toward. He was right: we are losing our liberty and freedoms and moving wholesale toward a totalitarian Marxist regime.
Every day for as long as I have known Sam he started the day with two prayers:
Mourner’s Kaddish
Exalted and hallowed be His great Name (Congregation: Amen.)
Throughout the world which He has created according to His will,
May his kingship reign, and His redemption come forth and hasten the coming of His Redeemer (Congregation. Amen.)
In your life and in your days and in the lifetime of the entire House of Israel, speedily and quickly say, Amen. (Congregation: Amen.)
May His great Name be blessed in this world and in all worlds. (The Mourner Repeats this line)
Blessed and praised exalted and extolled, honored, adored and lauded be the Name of the Holy 0ne be He, (Congregation: Amen.)
Way beyond all the blessings, hymns, praises and consolations uttered in the world; and say, Amen. (Congregation: Amen.)
May there be abundant peace from heaven, and a good life for us and for all and say, Amen. (Congregation: Amen.)
He who makes peace in His heaven, may he make peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen. (Congregation: Amen.)
Shema
Sh’ma Yis’ra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad.
Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
Barukh sheim k’vod malkhuto l’olam va’ed.
Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.
V’ahav’ta eit Adonai Elohekha b’khol l’vav’kha uv’khol naf’sh’kha uv’khol m’odekha.
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
V’hayu had’varim ha’eileh asher anokhi m’tzav’kha hayom al l’vavekha.
And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart.
V’shinan’tam l’vanekha v’dibar’ta bam
And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall speak of them
b’shiv’t’kha b’veitekha uv’lekh’t’kha vaderekh uv’shakh’b’kha uv’kumekha
when you sit at home, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.
Uk’shar’tam l’ot al yadekha v’hayu l’totafot bein einekha.
And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
Ukh’tav’tam al m’zuzot beitekha uvish’arekha.
And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
V’hayah im shamo’a tish’m’u el mitz’votai
And it shall come to pass if you surely listen to the commandments
asher anokhi m’tzaveh et’khem hayom
that I command you today
l’ahavah et Adonai Eloheikhem ul’av’do b’khol l’vav’khem uv’khol naf’sh’khem
to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul,
V’natati m’tar ar’tz’khem b’ito yoreh umal’kosh
v’asaf’ta d’ganekha v’tirosh’kha v’yitz’harekha.
That I will give rain to your land, the early and the late rains,
that you may gather in your grain, your wine and your oil.
V’natati eisev b’sad’kha liv’hem’tekha v’akhal’ta v’sava’ta.
And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle and you will eat and you will be satisfied.
Hisham’ru lakhem pen yif’teh l’vav’khem
v’sar’tem va’avad’tem Elohim acheirim v’hish’tachavitem lahem
Beware, lest your heart be deceived
and you turn and serve other gods and worship them.
V’charah af Adonai bakhem v’atzar et hashamayim v’lo yih’yeh matar
v’ha’adamah lo titein et y’vulah
And anger of the Lord will blaze against you, and he will close the heavens and there will not be rain,
and the earth will not give you its fullness,
va’avad’tem m’heirah mei’al ha’aretz hatovah asher Adonai notein lakhem.
and you will perish quickly from the good land that the Lord gives you.
V’sam’tem et d’varai eileh al l’vav’khem v’al naf’sh’khem
uk’shar’tem otam l’ot al yed’khem v’hayu l’totafot bein eineikhem.
So you shall put these, my words, on your heart and on your soul;
and you shall bind them for signs on your hands, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
V’limad’tem otam et b’neikhem l’dabeir bam
And you shall teach them to your children, and you shall speak of them
b’shiv’t’kha b’veitekha uv’lekh’t’kha vaderekh uv’shakh’b’kha uv’kumekha
when you sit at home, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.
Ukh’tav’tam al m’zuzot beitekha uvish’arekha.
And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
L’ma’an yirbu y’maychem vi-y’may v’naychem al ha-adamah
asher nishba Adonai la-avotaychem latayt lahem ki-y’may ha-shamayim al ha-aretz.
In order to prolong your days and the days of your children on the land
that the Lord promised your fathers that he would give them, as long as the days that the heavens are over the earth.
Vayo’mer Adonai el mosheh lei’mor
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying…
Dabeir el b’nei Yis’ra’eil v’amar’ta aleihem
Speak to the children of Israel and say to them
v’asu lahem tzitzit al kan’fei vig’deihem l’dorotam
v’nat’nu al tzitzit hakanaf p’til t’kheilet
they should make themselves tzitzit (fringes) on the corners of their clothing throughout their generations, and give the tzitzit of each corner a thread of blue.
V’hayah lakhem l’tzitzit ur’item oto uz’khar’tem et kol mitz’vot Adonai
va’asitem otam v’lo taturu acharei l’vav’khem v’acharei eineikhem
asher atem zonim achareihem
And they shall be tzitzit for you, and when you look at them you will remember all of the Lord’s commandments and do them and not follow after your heart and after your eyes
which lead you astray.
L’ma’an tiz’k’ru va’asitem et kol mitz’votai viyitem k’doshim lei’loheikhem
In order to remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.
Ani Adonai Eloheikhem
asher hotzei’ti et’khem mei’eretz Mitz’rayim lih’yot lakhhem leilohim
Ani Adonai Eloheikhem
I am the Lord, your God
who lead you from the land of Egypt to be a God to you.
I am the Lord, your God.
These are the actions of a deeply religious man, not an unclean or impure man. He will be buried before nightfall, because the Sabbath starts at liturgical sundown and mourning is not permitted on the Sabbath.
We are Catholics, yet we will sit shiva in honor of his life beginning at liturgical sundown tomorrow, only one day (24 hours), not the traditional seven.
At his funeral in a few hours, I will tear my shirt above my heart as a son should, for this man has been a father to me. I have been his “czarnym syn” since my wedding to his daughter 31 years ago. A few years ago I was stunned when he called me (in conversation with another ex-Pole) his ”Czczony syn i przyjaciela” (Honored son and friend).
Sam, Dad, Schmuel–many names for a great man … possibly the greatest and most humble man I ever met. Born a Pole, a Jew–a butcher by training … an American by choice … a great American by belief.
I believe I shall begin reciting the Mourner’s Kiddish and the Shema every morning in his honor as I did after discovering he had slipped away this morning.
The greatest honor I can pay him is to continue the fight against fascism, communism, socialism and totalitarianism. He loved America and was a faithful Son of Liberty. He was also a Son of Israel and a survivor of the Holocaust. His estate will be donated to organizations and museums related to the Holocaust.
Thank you for your kindness in reading my poor tribute to an incredible man.