16 Adar 5781 | February 28, 2021
929
Rabba Aliza Libman Baronofsky
Class of 2022
Blessed are You, O LORD; train me in Your statutes.
My Zeidy lived by the rules. Born in Poland in 1931, he was named Dov Nachman after the Maggid of Mezrich but his personal Chassidut was his devotion to upstanding character. He lived a far walk from shul, but made the trek every Shabbat despite the weather. He was committed to service, both home and community. For my Bubby, he’d sit patiently chopping vegetables for a family feast, for his community, he’d take us to visit old age homes and sing Chanukah songs every year.
Some mistakenly assume that learning happens primarily in classrooms, but Zeidy was a superlative informal educator. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War, which his family spent in Siberia, but he developed wisdom that he passed on to his children and grandchildren by example. By the way he lived, Zeidy taught me to show up for people. Even in retirement, he rose early and helped out at his children’s businesses, chauffeured his wife and grandchildren and always honored his commitments. On the 18th of Adar, he will have been gone from us for 10 years, taken too soon by cancer, but the statutes he taught his grandchildren will remain with us.
