Speech
Eulogy for Mrs. Erna Sondheimer Michael (1964)
This is the moment we had feared, and which so many worked with such dedication and so valiantly to avoid, or at least ward off. But, in the words of Job, that man of suffering, את אשר יגרתי יבא לי – “that which I had feared has come to pass.” This occasion is not an end, but a transition. For the family, it is a transition from the comforting knowledge of her presence to the grief that is inevitable in her absence. For her husband, especially, this is the transition from a long and arduous struggle fought on her behalf against a dread disease, to a period when, despite inevitable and inexorable physical defeat, he emerges with a moral victory. And for her, this is the transition between olam hazeh and olam haba – between this life and life hereafter.Two Hebrew words can best describe the mood of this transition period: עם חשיכה . Literally that means ”withthe darkness," and figuratively it means "twilight.” Indeed a sun has set, and it is still too early to feel the full impact of the bitter darkness, and certainly too soon to look for the redeeming rays of the moon and the stars.Even more, this is a twilight not only for a day that is done, but of an entire week, symbolizing the life of Erna Sond- heimer Michael. It is, in the language of our Rabbis, ערב שבת עם חשיכה , the late Friday twilight, that period towards the end of the week when active life, the days of labor, have come to an end, and final peace, the eternal Sabbath מנוחה is about to arrive.It is at a time of this sort that we recall the words of the Mishnah: שלשה דברים צריך אדם לאמר ערב שבת עם חשיכה,*t during this period of twilight on Friday evenings, a man must say three things in his home: , ערבתם , עשרתםהדליקו את הנר : Have you given the tithe? Ha/e you made the Eruv? Light the candle!The home where Mrs. Michael was raised was a distinguished one in Israel. It was a kind of home where she was taught since childhood the three components of life that stand by a person to the ׳ery end, even until ער…
