Terumah 5773: What David Smoller, ז"ל*, Taught Me

David Avram Smoller, ז"ל*

Every chance I get, I tell people that it is a privilege to be a rabbi.  Most treasured among the opportunities I treasure in my rabbinate are the people who let me into their lives.  The more experience I accrue as a rabbi, the more I come to appreciate what I can learn from my "chavrei kehillah" -- the members of my congregation.

A young friend recently told me about an intriguing international program called "The Human Library," in which a group of people with varying life experiences each agree to tell their life story for about fifteen minutes to any individual who is interested.  The visitor reads a synopsis of the person's life story on a card and decides to "check out" the human book.  They have a fifteen minute slot for the "human book" to tell her or his story and then the "library patron" returns the "human book" and can check out another if he or she finds another potentially interesting story.

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Over the course of time, I've acquired a few people who i've added to my permanent "human library."  People who have taught me, shared with me, opened vistas for me.

David Smoller was one of those.

If you were to assess the man in the photograph above, you'd probably guess that this was a happy man, a friendly man, a guy, perhaps, with a good sense of humor.  You'd be right.  What you would not guess from this great photograph of David at a Torat Yisrael end-of-summer barbecue a few years ago, is that David faced his own mortality with courage and determination and optimism and courage and sheer will since he was a teenager.

David would tell me:  "There's no other way to do it."  David would power through any and all onslaughts to his physical well-being with one single goal: to get back to his real life of loving and caring for and supporting Susan and Michelle.  "Life is good." David would say.

Other people in David's circumstances would (and do) complain, whine, suffer under a burden of fear, lash out in anger and frustration, shrivel in helplessness.

David swaggered through every challenge with a smile on his face, putting his faith in God, counting the blessings in his life, embracing every opportunity for friendship, mentschlichkeit, joy, love, generosity and a good laugh.

I sat at his feet; a neophyte in the art of living and loving life.

A week or so before David died, his daughter, Michelle, brought her laptop to the hospital and created this Youtube video.  

There is so much to learn from this intelligent, kind, funny, determined and loving man.

Thank you, Michelle, for putting this together so that so many of us can learn from your Dad.

Thank you, David, for sharing your wisdom and your humor and trust with me.


*zichrono livrachah: may his memory be a blessing