Scharfstein family
Moshe Hirsch Scharfstein
Daddy, or, as I have been used to calling you for the past dozens of years – Reb Moishe!
How can I describe your long and wonderful life, here, in just a few words?
Here are some of the main points:
My father was born on Rosh Chodesh (the 1st day of the month of) Heshvan in 1921 in Utena in Lithuania.
When he was only 4½ his mother Shajna-Basja passed away, and he was left an orphan at the age of 17 with the death of his father Avraham Scharfstein, my grandfather.
When the Nazis invaded Lithuania, he managed to escape to Russia, joined the Red Army, and was injured twice fighting the Nazis.
After the war, he realized his dream and went to study with Solomon Mikhoels at the Moscow State Jewish Theater (GOSET). He also met my mother in Moscow, and they got married. Following Mikhoel’s murder by Stalin’s evil regime, and the final destruction of Jewish culture, he managed to escape from Moscow back to Lithuania, where he joined his family that had survived the Holocaust.
After Stalin’s death, together with a group of friends, he founded the Jewish Theater in Vilna in 1956 and became its main actor, until he made Aliyah to Israel in 1971.
After more than 40 years living in Netanya, my father moved to Maagan Michael in 2014, surrounded by the love and warmth of his family and many other good people.
About a month ago, he moved to his final home – “Bet Carmel” where he also felt at home in every respect.
He died quietly and with the dignity that was so characteristic of him, accompanied by the tunes of the Yiddish songs he loved so much…
Thank you to our wonderful Kibbutz and the amazing staff at Bet Carmel who were so loving and supportive.
Eli
Sabik, Sabushki, my Grishuli.
Love of my life.
All my life long you were an infinite source of love, humor and laughter.
Endless optimism.
Every day you taught me the importance of finding the good in everything.
To find good and to do good.
To believe in man.
To believe in life.
And to love,
Endlessly, unconditionally,
To love.
You would say to visitors: “Did you hear what she called me”? “My love”. I am her love!” with a broad smile and a chuckle.
Thank you, my love, for the endless kisses.
Thank you for the big hugs, and especially the last one.
Thank you for your smile and your laugh, even when the going was hard.
Thank you for always being there and happy when the great-grandchildren visited.
Thank you for asking me to sing to you.
Thank you for my life.
Your Yael.
Saba - Grandfather
During the past year we helped each other prepare for the moment we would have to part. I asked candid questions, you gave me clear answers. You left no aspect unclear, and like the wonderful tailor you were, you designed your death with style. During the past year you asked us again and again not to cry over you, you had lived a full and good life, and I told you that, sadly, requests like these cannot be fulfilled, because it’s not you we’re crying for, but for ourselves, because we are the ones in pain, and you are - no longer. You left us on T’u B’Shvat (15th Shvat – New Year for Trees), and today we are planting your physical body in the earth.
I have no words to describe how grateful I am for the way in which you chose to live and to leave… just like you the way you walked with your Rolls-Royce walker… slowly but surely, step by step but always in a forward direction. That’s how you went, slowly but surely, towards the Gates of Eden. In your final days you were surrounded by a great halo of light that shone over us and enabled us to tell things, to sing and to pour out our love upon you. You were surrounded by family, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren… you had room for all of them.
What an amazing person you were, Saba. A mere two days before you departed from your body you gathered strength and asked to sit up in order to receive guests. And when my Adi arrived, you even smiled at her, and you laughed, it was so important for you to amuse people and make them happy. When you were hovering between two worlds, I told you again that I love you, my Saba, and you replied at once, “I know!” to make it absolutely clear. When I asked straight after that how you felt, you answered “I don’t know”… Your unassuming nature enabled you to admit that you didn’t know everything, but you always knew what was really important.
Now you must be eating blini and meatballs in Grandma-Savta’s kitchen, and you’re together again Zee and Gree. You should dance and sing Tanz Tanz! Send regards to everyone, be happy and be in touch, in dreams, in songs and in the newborns.
Thank you for teaching me what is important in life. Thank you for giving me the chance to cut your hair, to shave you, to pluck your eyebrows, your ears and even cut your nails. It was important for you to look well cared-for, to be dressed and tidy, and that’s how you left.
Thank you for teaching me how to prepare cabbage with cranberries, and about adding dill to soup. Thank you for the honey cookies you gave to the great-grandchildren and the kindergartens. Thank you for teaching me how to sew, with a thimble. Thank you for teaching me to do “like this” with a finger and when someone hits you on the back of your neck, you poke out your tongue, and to put it back in you have to pull on your ear.
Thank you for teaching me how to listen, and to talk less (well, you tried…)
Thank you for teaching me to choose what is good, and to be a person who is enlightened, generous and receptive.
Thank you for always accepting me for what I am, without judgment. For making me happy at my wedding, and for blessing us. Thank you for the gift that you were for me in this lifetime. Thank you for the lessons in knowing what is important in life, that I should be happy, loving and satisfied with my lot.
I choose to take you with me all my lifelong, and I will start calling myself Amichai Moshe Scharfstein from now on.
Shalom to you and to all of us. To life – Saba.
Amichai
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