Regal yet practical, Rebbetzin Sara Finkel brought majesty to the Torah world
And then there were the paintings. They covered the walls and the furniture, and over the years, the floor, propped up gently against the seforim shranks. Flowers, Jerusalem alleyways and windows, streams and bridges, skillfully depicted. Gedolim portraits glowing off the canvases. And, of course, the portraits of Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel ztz”l, rosh yeshivah of Mir Yerushalayim. From different angles, with his hat on, with his hat off, eyes lowered, learning. Captured by an artist, yet painted with the love only a mother possesses… it’s the home of artist, pianist, cookbook writer, mother of gedolim, eishes chayil Sara Finkel a”h.
A lot can change in 101 years. Rebbetzin Finkel’s life spanned generations, locales, worlds. Her parents, Rav Shmuel and Kreindel Leah Rosenblum, were famous for their chesed and hachnassas orchim. Kreindel Leah came from a Gerrer chassidic background; her father, Rav Yitzchok Meir Lubling, had been a noted lamdan in Bedzin, Poland.
The Rosenblums immigrated from Europe to St. Paul, Minnesota a few years after World War I. Growing up in St. Paul, before Bais Yaakov had reached American shores, young Sara was sent to public school, but her parents sent her to Hebrew school each day after her classes had finished.
Sara used to help her parents host the gedolim who would often stay in their home. When Rav Avraham Shmuel Finkel, mashgiach ruchani of Chevron Yeshivah, came to visit from Eretz Yisrael, he tested the impressive young woman to see if she would be a suitable match for his son, Eliyahu Meir. The test’s subject? Chesed.
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