Yesterday the world lost a rare light. Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski was a Torah scholar and psychiatrist par excellence who revolutionized the world of Jewish addiction and brought a loving Chassidic perspective to Torah, accessible even to the less-educated lay person. He wrote 60 books in his 90 years on both Torah and psychology.
But look at this photo.
Do you see what I see? In Hebrew there’s an expression “hadras panim.” It means “a radiance of the face.” It’s what you see when you look at a spiritual and kind human being whose goodness lights up their face and whose eyes shine the glow of their soul. That’s what I see when I look at Rabbi Twerski.
He wrote in his will that he didn’t want anyone to eulogize him. All he wanted for his funeral was for his loved ones to sing the song he had composed. And they did. Together they sang, in the Chassidic accent, King David’s words from Psalms 28:7: “Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance; shepherd and carry them forever.”
Rabbi Twerski lifted and carried so many. May his beautiful words be fulfilled quickly. Even in his death, he is still teaching us how to be.
May his soul find eternal rest and may his beautiful Torah bring him nachas in the next world.
