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Feb 17, 2015
What has impressed me since Uri Orbach's death
Yesterday, as I am sure by now you all know, a minister of Israel died of a rare blood disease. Uri Orbach of Habayit Hayehudi.
I had no personal connection to him, and will not eulogize him, but I would like to point out one thing.
Since his death, actually even before it as he was in the hospital and asking people to pray for him but much more so after death, it has come to light how well-liked he was, how good of a person he was.
What I find impressive is not that he was a good person, BH we have plenty of those. Not even that he was a good person in the Knesset - we have some of those as well.
He was just a good person. He was a mentsch. What impressed me is how everybody, from right to left, from religious to not religious to anti-religious, from every type of news media on the spectrum in both print media and on the airwaves, they all talk about how good he was, how much of a mentsch, how despite their differences in ideology and belief he gave everyone respect, had a smile, a kind word, a witty comment, a way to make them smile and laugh.
Bar none.
I have not seen any news media, and I explicitly heard from reps all the way to Meretz and Labor, and on the far right, and from the haredim, and everyone else, how they felt connected to him, how good he was.
Someone who can make such a strong impression - not by being aggressive or pushy or looking for ways to "lick up" to others, but just by being nice and respectful.. we need more people like that.
I had no personal connection to him, and will not eulogize him, but I would like to point out one thing.
Since his death, actually even before it as he was in the hospital and asking people to pray for him but much more so after death, it has come to light how well-liked he was, how good of a person he was.
What I find impressive is not that he was a good person, BH we have plenty of those. Not even that he was a good person in the Knesset - we have some of those as well.
He was just a good person. He was a mentsch. What impressed me is how everybody, from right to left, from religious to not religious to anti-religious, from every type of news media on the spectrum in both print media and on the airwaves, they all talk about how good he was, how much of a mentsch, how despite their differences in ideology and belief he gave everyone respect, had a smile, a kind word, a witty comment, a way to make them smile and laugh.
Bar none.
I have not seen any news media, and I explicitly heard from reps all the way to Meretz and Labor, and on the far right, and from the haredim, and everyone else, how they felt connected to him, how good he was.
Someone who can make such a strong impression - not by being aggressive or pushy or looking for ways to "lick up" to others, but just by being nice and respectful.. we need more people like that.
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Uri Ohrbach - May his name and memory be for a blessing. May his family and loved ones be comforted among the mourners of Tzion and Yerushalayim.
ReplyDeleteMay Moshiach come and then the return of all Yiddishe neshamas b'mheirah b'yameinu.
One other thing people said in his lifetime, as well: he was committed and hard-working. He genuinely worked to serve the people his office was there for. There are many, many MKs and politicians about whom that could not be said.
ReplyDeleteIf you have largely "missed" Uri Orbach, I feel sorry for you. For years and years he was a cheery, good-humored voice for the RZ point of view. Millions of us heard him over the years on the Galei Tsahal program, "HaMilah HaAcharona", one of the rare media forums that presented a dialogue between the religious and the secular that did not dissolve into a shouting match. Good-natured dialogue and wit were the order of the day.
ReplyDeleteIf this great man was the only one in our generation capable of doing all that was said, mainly to unite everyone and to get everyone to respect him for what he was, and not what they would want him to be, the loss for the people is very great. One person in our generation capable of doing this. It appears we were truly blessed to have him amongst us, but we did not realise it, and took him for granted. So now he has been taken from us, and we are back to square one. Will we ever recover from his loss? I pray that Hashem will bless us again with someone with a soul like his. יה זכרו ברוך
ReplyDeleteMeir S, I think that our problem is that there are many people like this but they do not get the credit or glory while they are around.
ReplyDelete