On
Shabbat Vayigash, a tish was held in Jerusalem with Rebbetzin Miriam
Amital and a group of alumni of the Yeshiva.
Over the
course of the evening, the Rebbetzin took the participants back in history to
her days in Rechovot, to stories about her grandfather Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer
and the writing of his classic Even HaEzel, and a host of other stories.
The
participants also shared their own memories of our dearly beloved and revered
teacher, HaRav Yehuda Amital, ztz"l.
Attached is
a piece written by Yeshiva alumnus,
Rav Daniel Gutenmacher
An Evening
in Katamon with Rebbetzin Amital:
What did
it mean for us all to spend the evening together with Rebbetzin Amital, that
precious woman who accompanied us during our years in the Yeshiva, who, as if
stepping out of the shadows, spoke and talked to us much more than she ever did
in our student days?
I didn't
feel like I was sitting there with Rebbetzin Amital instead of sitting there
with Rav Amital himself. I felt that we were given the opportunity to re-excite
ourselves together, listening and giving voice to memories of deeds and
statements that inspired us for life. Nachliel Disson reported a dvar Torah that
he had heard from Rav Amital in those early years, and I found myself telling a
story about Purim in Rav Amital's house with Hanan Porat, and we all heard from
the Rebbetzin how Rav Amital educated his own children. All this created an
atmosphere, not only of nostalgia, but of recognition that we are conducting
our lives with shared messages, and even with the presence of a person who is
no longer here, his spirit hovering in our spirit to this very day.
There was
intimacy in the air. How can a woman create such an atmosphere among alumni,
some or most of whom have not been in the Yeshiva for decades? And then I
remembered how she came twice to the Bar Mitzva celebration of the same son
because she and the Rav had mistakenly come to the hall on the Motzaei Shabbat
a week earlier than what was written in the invitation.
There was
also holiness in the room, because we knew then and we experienced once again
through the Rebbetzin that Rav Amital instilled in us a Torah of life that was
rooted in Europe and underwent revolutionary changes on the way to and in Israel,
a melting pot that included wars and the sound counsel of Rav Meltzer and the
Hazon Ish.
We wish
to thank the Rebbetzin as well as the organizers of the event. And once again
we wish to express our gratitude to Rav Amital whom we so sorely miss.
Dani
Gutenmacher
