ABOUT MY DAD [z'l]
My father, Leo Schwartz (Yaakov Aryeh ben Tzvi z'l), passed
away fourteen years ago today. I feel moved to share with you some of my
impressions. My father always derived a lot of pleasure from hearing me speak
at family gatherings [though I was usually too shy to speak at the time]. What
I would like to attempt briefly now, is to share with you [a sort of
soul-family gathering] a few of my dad's outstanding traits in order to use the
information to remind and re-inspire me and perhaps others, to internalize
these traits in order to help in the process of elevating my father's soul.
Truth be told, what can I say to do justice in a few brief lines to capture a
lifetime of his humbleness and overflowing love of everybody, but nevertheless
, a little bit is better than nothing?
It says in the
holy Zohar that a child has the greatest potential for raising up their
father's soul. There are
conventional ways of doing this such as saying Kaddish, leading the prayer
service and on an ever higher level to do Teshuvah and become a better person
in their honor. Rabbi Dessler writes in ‘Michtav MeEliayhu’ that if a child can
identify the good character traits that have been implanted in them by their
parent, and the child concentrates on strengthening these traits in themselves
in order to elevate their parent’s soul, than they have perhaps accomplished
the most potent and intimate soul elevation dynamic possible.
The Ari'zal in
his classic work on souls and reincarnation, ‘Shaar HaGilgulim’, delves in
great detail into the personality traits, both good and bad, that are bestowed
upon their children upon conception [and of course the parents are instrumental
in guiding their children in making their good traits shine]. This conception based bond continues to
connect parents and children beyond life.
It says in the story of the Akeida (the binding of Abraham's son
Isaac) that Abraham rose early and saddled his donkey by himself even though he
was one of the most important personalities of his generation and he should
have had a servant doing this for him. We learn a universal principle from
this. When a person acts out of deep love, he doesn't stand on his laurels or
his honor. The reason is because love eliminates all formalities. Abraham loved
Hashem and his love caused him to transcend all trivial concerns for honor etc…
My father was a
great lover of everyone no matter who they were or what sub-category of society
they belonged to, or whether he knew them or not. I remember going on a Jerusalem Egged bus
with my dad and even though everybody was quiet and to themselves, my dad
changed all that. He would speak up [in a voice louder than was socially
acceptable] to who ever was next to him and ask questions like, “Who are you?
Where do you come from? What's your story? What do you think about the politics
here?” In a short time a very quiet Egged bus turned into a loud chirping
celebration of Israelis who love nothing better than expressing their opinions.
And –I also learned from this , a very important life-lesson…everybody has
their story to tell—and really wants to tell it [especially here in the Land of
the Ingathering of Exiles from all corners of the globe]…all these potential
life-story tellers are lacking is the listening ear that my dad provided so
generously….This was not an isolated incident, it happened usually daily in
various places. My father’s daily trophies which he would brag about to my mom
[A’H], would be the new people and their stories he discovered that day
May his memory continue to be such a rich blessing and source of
inspiration.
And may he put in
a good word upstairs for all of us in these crazy times we live in…
By: Yitzchak Schwartz.
****The photo is my dad and mom in El Paso way back when...
