We are come here to reverence the memory of those dear friends and associates who have departed this year. With tender affections, we commend to G‑d Almighty those souls whom He has called to eternal rest and peace. (List of names here?) Let it be said on their behalf that it was no small merit for them to be affiliated with a benevolent society. By this affiliation they have, in their lifetimes, indicated that they regarded, in creed and deed, that benevolence, gmilas chassodim, is the cornerstone of their lives.a^ G’CH is the distinguishing mark of Jewishness - not long nose, high brow, f*.חסן <(,<’«? - fj^zk ?^1(1 ^ t't'fik (*'$b) at a time when men - intrigue, conspiracy, fiendish weapons, diabolical atom and even hydrogen bombs, hatred and enmity, they tower head and shoulders above fellow humans because they preached and practiced the doctrine of G’Ch. H*״^/c) Death for such people not mere disappearance, erased from records, graveyard of forgotten history. ed) f<^^ J/c 10/v’i ....................... <o^ץ^(t.. AH>I YIJ'I Rabbis: "unto his people"means "each to his own type". Thise dead whom we today memorialize are gathered unto their people who, like Father Abraham, pursued carrer G’Ch, who made life ambition to serve others; ־who knew not only Charity begin at home, but Home begins woth Charity that benevolence is the road on which the children of Abraham can march to immortalitye) {׳y^ |f1 4&£*| . We who vow to continue this sacred work of benevolence; who regard G’Ch as a Service and Benevolence as a Worship of G-d, we welcome their souls to an honorable place of eternal and indelible memory in our hearts. They are gathered unto us.f) Those dear souls shall not be forgotten; the warmth and sentiment which filled their souls, the sacredness and Selflessness ■which guided their actions of benevolence, the dedication and devotion to G’Ch which raised simple men and women to the stature of messengers of mercy, shall forever be for us a G-d…

מותו של הנפטר חל דש קוראים ויחי, סיפור קץ תולדות אבות, האומה בזקנתם, ותחילת פרשה חדשה בדברי ימי העם. המילים האחרונות של החומש הוי: ״וישם הארון במצרם״ ״ויזהר על אתר, תרי יוד״יין״ (בניישם) ומריץ. ואמאי? כלומר, למה כפל היוד? (ובפרט כאשר שני הם יחד זה סימן לשם ה׳.) ומתפרש, שיוסף הצדיק נטר ברית לעליון ונר ברית לתחתון והכי שתי יוד״ין. כלומר, כל אדם חייב בשתי בריתות:

I feel woefully inadequate to the task of speaking the eulogy for my teacher, my colleague, and my friend, Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein. In truth, there is only one person who could do justice to this occasion in honor of Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, and that is – Rabbi Joseph Lookstein. Who else but that master orator could compose the proper farewell for so distinguished a man?Yet, I feel that I must try, both because I want to and because it was his wish that I do so.My own relationship with Rabbi Lookstein began thirty-two years ago, when I took his course in Jewish Sociology at Yeshiva College. I remember how impressed I was by this vital, jovial, articulate, and knowledgeable man. He read my papers carefully, commented upon them incisively with his beautiful penmanship, and encouraged me to further work. A few years later, I was his student in the Homiletics and Practical Rabbinics courses that he gave for many decades at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. What a gifted teacher he was, what a scintillating lecturer! I felt enormously flattered when, towards the end of these courses, he invited me to be his rabbinic assistant at Cong- regation Kehilath Jeshurun and, during the course of that year, to teach at Ramaz School as well. This was an apprenticeship in which he taught me the fundamentals of the art of the rabbinate and that profoundly in- fluenced my following twenty-four years in that profession.During this period, I had the opportunity to spend time in the home of Rabbi and Mrs. Lookstein. There I experienced the dignity, the warmth, the mutual respect, the love and care and concern of Rabbi and Mrs. Lookstein, of their two children Natalie and Haskel, and their two young grandchildren.Subsequently, I became Rabbi Lookstein's colleague in the Man- hattan rabbinate and on the Yeshiva University faculty. During this time, our relationship continued to develop and, if some times our rela- tions were a bit complex, they were always for me a source of enl…

וימת יוסף בן מאה ועשר שנים ויחנטו אותו ויישם בארון במצרים – "So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." כך מסתיים ספר בראשית, במותו ובקבורתו של יוסף. הזוהר, בדרשו על פסוק זה, מתעכב על כתיב המילה "ויישם", שאינה מופיעה בשום מקום אחר בתורה. תרי יודי״ן אמאי? אלא יוסף נטר ליה ברית לתתא ונטיר ליה ברית דלעילא, אסתלק מעלמא אתשוי בתרי ארוני – אתר, בארון לתתא ובארון לעילא – "[שתי האותיות רומזות לכך] שיוסף שמר שני בריתות: ברית עליונה וברית תחתונה. כשנסתלק מן העולם, הושם בשני ארונות – אחד לגוף ששמר את הברית התחתונה, ואחד [ארון הקודש] על נאמנותו לברית העליונה." שני הבריתות רומזות לציותו של יוסף לאלוהים – הברית העליונה, וליושרו כלפי בני אדם – הברית התחתונה.Ask ChatGPT Our Joseph, Dr. Yosef Burg, lived to the age of 90-91, not 110; he was not embalmed; and he was buried in Israel and not in Egypt. But the rest of the Zohar's commentary holds for him as it did for the Biblical Joseph. His was a double covenant, תרי יודי״ן. He was true to both of them—צו גאט און צו לייט. Our words of tribute to his memory are meant to cover both his covenants, his ברית לתתא and his ברית דלעילא.Dr. Burg dedicated his life to his people—an aspect of his Lower Covenant—and this dedication did not stem from a mere nationalist perspective, but from a profoundly religious one. It was a spiritual perception that motivated him throughout his illustrious career. His Religious Zionism was not a synthesis in which Zionism was somehow superadded to his religion; rather, the nationalism grew organically out of his religious convictions. Thus, he was superbly qualified to lead World Mizrachi as its President and foremost ideologue.As a leading statesman of Israel and a Minister in various posts and under various governments in the course of more than 35 years, he distinguished himself by sheer competence and scrupulous loyalty. He did his best, at all times, to extend his full help to institutions dedicated to the teaching of Torah. He was a m…

When the Biblical Joseph died, the Torah describes in three words what happened shortly after that: ״ויישם בארון במצרים״’ he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. The Zohar was intrigued by the spelling of ויישם; having the two letters yod in a row is not at all common in the Torah. The Zohar was probably also motivated by the fact that this letter is often the symbol for God or Godliness, since it is th e first letter of שם הוי׳, the Tetragrammaton. It therefore concluded that each of the two letters yod stands for a different covenant: תרי יודי״ן דנטר בריתא דלעילא ודנטר בריתא לתתא, one yod stands for conforming with the covenant of man with the Above, i.e., the רבונו של עולם, and the other represents abiding by the covenant Below, i.e., amongst human beings.That interpretation by the Zohar of the uniqueness of Joseph who lived up to the two covenants, also defined our Joseph, Joe Warburg. He was a two-covenant man, one who was loyal to his Maker and gracious to his fellowman. To use the Yiddish (and probably German as well), he was equally ״צו גאט און צו לייט״, covenanted to God and to man.Joe was true to his בריתא דלעילא — he rarely missed the daily מנין, and who forced himself to attend Shabbat services even when in pain or disabled by weakness. He was genuinely pious, a שומר מצוות כהלכה. He and lisa raised their children, Joan and Ronnie and David, to be highly educated in Torah and in worldly careers. Almost all their children and grandchildren studied at Yeshiva University.Jo was a leader in this community, and his form of leadership was not by exercising his power, but by using his vast influence as a role model for an Orthodox Jew. For he was by all means gentle, soft-spoken, polite- a marvelous representative of the best of German Jewry— a classical case of a German-Jewish gentleman: mature, knowledgeable, elegant, dignified, respectable. He was an advocate of Torah Umadda or more likely its German-Jewish, Hirschian version , Torah im Derech Eretz. He certainl…