Always laughing, always teaching, always learning,Rebbetzin Temi Kamenetsky brought thousands closer to Torah
Temah Kamenetsky was born in New York to Reb Mordechai and Charna Raizel Brooks. Her father, a chazzan, was a diamond merchant who used to hire poor immigrants as gem cutters. The “greeners” didn’t know the trade, though, and their work was often subpar. Reb Mordechai would return to the office after hours to redo their work, never letting them know he was hiring them simply as a form of charity.
Temi attended public school, supplemented by private lessons, and then Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan’s seminary.
As a child, she once suffered an ear infection. As she underwent a painful medical procedure to drain her ears, her father cried at the sight of his daughter’s pain. Though in agony herself, young Temi squeezed her father’s hand and comforted him, “Tatteh, veint nisht — don’t cry.” If it was from the Eibeshter, then it was good.
When Rabbi Brooks heard that a talmid chacham, Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, would be arriving from Toronto to join the hanhalah of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, he quickly arranged to vacate his apartment to provide a place for the Kamenetsky family. Leaving behind a set of candlesticks, he told Rav Yaakov to enjoy them. Sometime later, the Kamenetskys presented the same candlesticks to a beaming Temi Brooks upon her engagement to their son Shmuel.
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