In 2012, I took Dr. Issy Fisher, my Hebrew teacher at Carmel College in Durban, South Africa, to meet Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz at the Steinsaltz Center in Jerusalem. It was my way of honoring my beloved teacher, and introducing him to the great Talmudic sage.
Rav Adin (which means gentle in Hebrew) spoke to us in English, and joked that we Litvaks had an overinflated opinion of ourselves (although he, too, was part Litvak). After they moved from Lithuania to South Africa more than a century ago, he said, many Jews were reduced from scholars to smouse (traveling salesmen).
Issy, who recently turned 92, responded that South African Litvaks had always emphasized education, especially Jewish learning, and they had climbed to the top of many professions, from medicine to business and even journalism. He winked at me.
Rav Adin smiled. He had a wicked sense of humor, but could also be super serious. “When we do something good, we change the world,” he said. “That’s tikkun olam.”
He told us about his visit to the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York after his son, Meni, was diagnosed with leukemia. He and his wife, Chaya Sarah Azimov, had three children – Esti (Esther Sheleg), Meni (Menachem Yaakov Tzvi) and Amechayeh (an acronym for Avraham Moshe Chaim Hillel).
The Rebbe advised the family to change its name from Steinsaltz, which meant “salt stone,” to a Hebrew one (they decided on Even-Israel) – and not to let Meni have a bone-marrow transplant. “The doctors were furious that we chose to follow the Rebbe’s guidance, not theirs,” Steinsaltz wrote in My Rebbe. “Despite their prediction, our son healed, married and had children.” Following his father’s stroke in 2016, Meni took over the reins of the Steinsaltz Center.
Steinsaltz, who was featured on the cover of The Jerusalem Report of July 9, 2018, died at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem – the city of his birth – on August 7, 2020 at the age of 83. A few days later, I received this wonderful letter from Gary R. Pickholz, nicely capturing his personality: Twenty-plus years ago, El Al initiated the first nonstop to the Orient: Hong Kong back to Tel Aviv Thursday night by way of New Delhi so everyone in Asia could get home for Shabbat... Wherever in Asia one was, just get to Hong Kong by Thursday night and hop on the first direct flight. The plane was fully boarded but we weren’t going anywhere. The pilot comes on the intercom, announces we are holding the flight 30 minutes for a VIP passenger due to the need to be home for Shabbat. The half hour turned into an hour, of course, but the VIP then arrived and we took off. The VIP was Rav Steinsaltz, with Tomas Nissel (his assistant) in tow.
Halfway to India, someone makes the mistake of asking why Rav Steinsaltz was late for the plane, and delayed 400 passengers for an hour. The explanation was that he had been in Hong Kong, was already checked out of his hotel awaiting his taxi, when he recalled he had forgotten to purchase any silk or linen in the Orient to bring home to his wife. So he rushed back in to purchase something, necessitating the delay.
One could hear a pin drop in the cabin, as every empty-handed businessman on board quietly calculated just how many minutes it would take for such a story to circulate in Jerusalem and beyond. The stewardesses laughed all the way to Tel Aviv at having sold out every last item in the on-board Duty Free to all those empty-handed businessmen, because of Rav Steinsaltz insisting on going back to get a proper present from Hong Kong for his wife.
May his memory be blessed!