L ast week the loss of zichrono livrachah was too fresh with the feelings still swirling the thoughts disjointed for me to write about it. And in the short tribute to Reb Nisson that I penned here three years ago I said that I almost didn’t want to be writing it lest it be thought that those brief inadequate paragraphs could somehow substitute for the much fuller written appreciation he so richly deserved.
Like so many other writers I owe him a personal debt for publishing some of my first writing and for serving as a role model — a “bona fide literary legend” is how I put it then. I also wrote about the Jewish Observer describing it as “a critical part of Orthodoxy’s coming-of-age as a confident contemporary faith community that not only had a coherent and well-considered worldview but also the ability to articulate it in a sophisticated manner.” And I continued
Reb Nisson was that project’s supervising engineer: discovering and cultivating new talent and making wise use of that already known including his own; choosing the battles to fight mapping out the strategy and commissioning the warriors; charting new territory for intra-communal attention and discussion; putting those within and without who would defame us on notice that we were listening and would respond vigorously; opening up new vistas of thought biography history to a broad readership.
All so true and just recalling those words makes me miss those days all over again. Now that a beautiful tribute appeared last week focusing on him not just professionally but personally too permit me to add a few strokes to the portrait already painted.
