To Mom with Love

“And Avram passed through the land, until the place of Shechem…” (Bereishis12:6)

Rashi explains that Avram traveled to Shechem to pray for Yaakov’s sons who’d attack the city in the future.

Rav Yosef Sorotzkin asks why it was necessary for Avram to actually travel to Shechem to pray there.

He explains that to pray for someone properly, you must truly feel his pain. Avram therefore went to absorb the atmosphere of Shechem. The emotions he’d experience there would enable him to daven with greater fervor. (Rabbi Shlomo Caplan, Mishulchan Shlomo)

Today is Mom’s a”h yahrtzeit. Thirteen years ago, I was in the middle of a difficult pregnancy that necessitated bed rest and constant doctor’s care.

Then we got the phone call from the States. My mother-in-law had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Although she’d undergo surgery and treatments, the doctors were not optimistic. Her time was limited.

But I couldn’t possibly travel. Nor could I manage on my own while my husband traveled. We discussed every possibility with our rav, but it became clear that my husband’s place was at my side, miles away from his mother.

This is also why Yaakov buried Rochel by Beit Lechem. In the future, her descendants would pass there, and seeing her children shackled in chains would inspire her to pray with greater devotion.

The phone became our lifeline, as we monitored Mom’s progress and spoke to her daily. Sometimes she was coherent, her voice hopeful yet wistful. “You know what I can’t do anymore?” she said one day, “Reading Hebrew. That’s one of the first things that became impossible to do. I miss it the most.”