JANUARY 25 • 2024 | 7
J
N

 
 

Zayde’s will made me cry. 
Like my Dad, who told us as 
he entered hospice care last 
February not only where his 
funeral should be but at what 
time, Yitzchok Yehoshua 
gave his survivors specific 
instructions.
“I ask that a proper 
kosher Taharah be made for 
me,” he wrote, referring to 
the Jewish ritual cleansing 
of a dead body. “You should 
not open the coffin and they 
shall not take me into the 
synagogue.”
He was not a man of 
means. The five charities he 
designated to receive $25 
each were his synagogue, 
Congregation Agudath 
Israel, its Hebrew school, 
two local cemeteries and 
an outfit devoted to the 

mitzvah of welcoming 
guests. The only other 
inheritance he specified were 
his talit and tefillin — one 
set went to my dad, and now 
belongs to my brother-in-
law, the other to my dad’s 
Uncle Sam, who Zayde 
called by his Hebrew and 
Yiddish name, Simcha.
“My dear son Simcha, I ask 
of you that what remains you 
shall divide with everybody 
equally,” reads the last para-
graph. “Be well, and may you 
live as long as I have lived.”
Amen. 

Jodi Rudoren has been editor-in-

chief of the Forward since 2019. She 

previously spent 21 years at The 

New York Times, including a stint 

as Jerusalem bureau chief. This is 

reprinted here with permission from 

the Forward.

Yiddish Limerick
Tu b’Shevat

Dos iz Rosh Hashana 
 of the tree 
So plant ein boyml, 
 farvos nit three? 
 Then vart a bisl biz 
 mir kenen essn 
 a frucht mir kenen 
 nit fargessn, 
Dos iz Tu b’Shevat for 
 you and me.
 
Dos iz: this is 
ein boyml: one little 
 tree 
farvos nit: why not 
vart a bisl: wait a little 
biz mir kenen essn: till 
 we can eat 
a frucht mir kenen nit 
 fargessn: a fruit we 
 cannot forget

— Rachel Kapen

BRIAN GREEN/WIKIMEDIA

MATTHILDUR MARK KELLER
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