MITZVAH HERO instinct or perhaps by some kind of inner spiritual urg- ing that a certain person needs help." Resident Sue Weingarten is 93 — a kind lady, but a little shy. She likes to join in the planned activities at the Federation Apartments, but she will not go alone. Rebecca Blumenfeld makes it her responsibility to escort her friend to meals and other events. "She does everything for me," Sue Weingarten says. "She is like my mother. It is beyond good." Mrs. Blumenfeld always wondered what it would be like to be a radio or televi- sion anchor. Instead, she worked hard all of her life taking care of her family. Today, she says, her fam- ily is healthy, and they don't need her to help them the way others do. For her fami- ly, she saves Shabbat. She rolls her own challah dough, cleans her own home, and she walks faster than her daughter, Sarah, usually outpacing her by one-half block. Sarah Wolfson loves to tell her favorite story about her mother. It is told by a rabbi who is a friend of the family: "He says that if the Mashiach came today, he would first stop at her house to eat at her table." Raised in an observant household in Wierbnick, Poland, by Leibush and Finkel Tenenbaum, young Rebecca first learned the importance of good deeds from her parents-. While still in Poland, she met her husband, Leibel Blumenfeld, a rabbi and a scholar. She married him when she was 21. He was a shochet (kosher slaughter- er); she worked in a grocery store and raised their three children, Sarah Wolfson, Sol Blumenfeld and Alan Blumenfeld. Together, Rebecca and Leibel did many nice things for others. But Mrs. Blumenfeld will not cite specifics. After all, she learned a long time ago that one should not boast about accomplishments. And mitzvot, her parents taught her, must be done silently. "My mother was always giving, giving, giving," she says, adding her father col- lected money for gowns for indigent brides. Her parents lived a mod- est lifestyle during trying times in Poland in the early 1920s. They didn't enjoy life's little extra pleasures. But they always had enough food. And it would not be uncommon for her mother to water down her homemade vegetable soup so less fortu- nate people could join them for dinner. The Tanenbaums were not wealthy, but Rebecca's father couldn't stand know- ing that some of his neigh- bors did not even have enough money for food. Once, as Rebecca was preparing soup for herself, her mother instructed her to leave her bowl. A poor man was wandering outside their home. "I walked away. I ate a piece of bread or something. It was no big deal." Several times, when less fortunate neighbors were not home, or when they were still asleep, Rebecca would take a sack of pota- toes to the house, placing it discreetly by the door. She never told her friends or the other neigh- bors it was she who brought the food. "You couldn't say anything. You didn't want to embarrass them." Mrs. Blumenfeld has devoted her life to following in her parents' footsteps and observing the command- ments. Though modest about doing mitzvot, she will tell you that she makes a wonderful vegetable soup — her specialty, her moth- er's recipe. To this day, Mrs. Blumenfeld refuses to gos- Rebecca Blumenfeld visits with Sue Weingarten. sip. She carries with her many secrets. Her purpose, she says, is to make life for those she meets a little bit easier. "I am not looking for honor," she says. "I love peo- ple, and I love to help. I just do this for God. He is upstairs. He knows what I do. "God keeps me here to do this." ❑