JANUARY 25 • 2024 | 7
J
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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
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