As I mentioned in my article dealing with this series, I’ve had my share of “strange,” and I mentioned a couple of strange funerals. But the strangest happened just a few months after arriving in Wilmington. I was assistant to a man who was headed on a two month sabbatical to Israel. I had been there only six months. Yes, I was glad he and the congregation trusted me enough to take the reins, but to say I was nervous about shepherding 586 families as well as running the religious school is a true understatement. The first thing that happened was an earthquake the night my senior flew to Israel. It was powerful enough to knock things off open shelves. I recall vividly waking up, looking up and thinking, “If this is an omen, I’m going to drill holes in bowling balls as my job!” Well, that next morning I got a call that Mr. Schleplowitz had died. I made arrangements to visit Mrs. Schleplowitz so we could make funeral arrangements.
Truly a lovely lady and a nice family, but what she said to me soon after I arrived made me want my anchor to come back from Israel N O W !! “Rabbi, we’re going to have to wait a bit for the funeral,” she calmly informed me. Now remember, I hadn’t been in town long so I didn’t know the circumstances of every family of the large congregation.
“Why is that, Mrs. Schleplowitz?”
“Well, Rabbi, our daughter was very close to her father. She’s in a special school for extremely critically ill children and when she hears the news she’ll drop dead!”
I recall my reply, “Mrs. Schleplowitz, I’m sorry for all this heartache but perhaps that shock will just upset her.”
She was very kind to me. “Rabbi, she’ll drop dead.”
Surrounded by a host of physicians when they broke the news, she did!
It was easier than I expected when I met to speak about him…and now her. It was to be a double funeral in our sanctuary. Everyone knew how ill he was; everyone knew how precarious her situation had been for so long.
There was – at least for me – a silver lining in this situation.
The young child’s name was Ruth. In the Book of Ruth Naomi tells her non-Jewish daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah*, to go back to their ancestral homes after their husbands die as young men. Orpah returns, but Ruth says, “Where you go, I will go; where you dwell, I shall dwell; your people shall be my people, your God my God. Where you die shall I die, and there shall I be buried…” making Ruth the first biblical character to choose Judaism. But here were two coffins side-by-side: Where you die shall I die, and there shall I be buried.” It made a difficult situation just a little easier for me.
(Speaking of funerals, the story is told of Mr. Schleplowitz who was on his deathbed. His wife came upstairs and sat with him. “Darling,” he whispered, “it smells so good. Are you baking something?” Mrs. Schleplowitz replied, “Yes, dear, I’m baking rugelach.” “Before I go, would you bring me one?” She said, “As much as I’d like to, I need them all for shiva.