This Tuesday was the Yahrtzeit/אזכרה (anniversary of the passing) of Daniel ben Kalanomous v'Faygel. Here is Brenda's powerful speech that she read to family and friends:
Eavesdropping on a conversation between two men at a recent NBN event, I heard one of the men explain how he was interested in improving his midot (character traits) since he was getting older and once you die, you become a “story.” He wanted his story to be one of value. This is Daniel’s yahrzeit and Thank G-d, Daniel had a good story to tell. I won’t tell it all because it would take days.
In short, he loved being a doctor and felt privileged that he could help people and do G-d’s work as a doctor and also support a family doing what he loved. He loved learning Torah and progressed from knowing very little to being able to substitute for a Rabbi at Beth Jacob teaching Daf Yomi (the daily page of Talmud study). He went through 3 cycles of Daf Yomi.
Not only did Daniel love learning Torah, but he loved being religious. He loved to tell his story of being a Ba’al Tshuvah (a Jew who turns to embrace Orthodox Judaism) and loved hearing other people’s stories. He found his own transition to religious Judaism amazing. George once asked Daniel, “When are you going to stop being a Ba’al Tshuvah and just be like everyone?” Daniel was thrilled to answer that he intended to be a Ba’al Tshuvah his whole life.
Most of all, he loved his family. When taken to chemotherapy treatments,he told a friend that of all his accomplishments,he was most proud of his children. Daniel loved his children more than anything else in his life. Daniel and I always intended to make Aliyah since we got married. We needed to save money, then we had children, then day school expenses, and then . . .
We had a target date for our Aliyah—October 2014. Daniel got all his credentials certified so he could practice in Israel. When we did not know Daniel was ill, and we were pursuing Aliyah, I got scared at the prospect of emptying our house and garage of 35 years of clutter. I thought maybe we could change our plans and continue to go back and forth. Daniel answered, “I lived too many years of my life without my children and grandchildren. I don’t want to live so far away from them any more.” What he said made sense to me.
I wish he had been able to come with me on Aliyah. I miss him.
