Parashat Re’eh 5783

by Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields

This week’s Torah Reading, Parashat Re’eh, has a very personal meaning to me, because my father, Dr. Arthur H. Wolintz, died during the week of Parashat Re’eh on August 22, 2011. It was very ironic that he died the week of this Torah Reading, because re’eh means “see” and my father was a neuro-ophthalmologist, a physician who dealt with issues related to vision, eyes and the brain. I want to dedicate my WWOT to my father’s memory, and show how we can incorporate concepts of arevut, responsibility in our lives, based on how he lived his life, and the meaning of the word re’eh. My father was the president of his synagogue, the Flatbush and Shaare Torah Jewish Center in Brooklyn, New York, for over a decade, and he attended morning services nearly every day, to help make a minyan, in case someone needed to say kaddish. My father taught by example that it was everyone’s responsibility to be part of the quorum of ten, so a minyan would exist for prayer. After minyan, he had a list of people who he would call from the president’s office at the synagogue, to check how they were feeling. My father often did not return from services until at least an hour after they ended, but he saw it as his responsibility to keep in touch with his fellow synagogue members. My father also was very dedicated to his life as a physician, helping people see better. He never turned away a patient who could not afford his examination. He was very supportive of organizations that helped the blind, which was a way he showed how important the verb re’eh, see, which begins our Torah Reading this week, was in his life. How does seeing and looking impact our life and the responsibilities we hold near and dear in our lives? Do we assist those who have challenges seeing, by providing them large-print items, or reading to them? Do we help people cross the street who cannot see? Or not put obstacles in their way? Is there someone who could use a call today? Have you helped make a minyan, so others in your community can say Kaddish? Although no longer physically in the world, I see my father’s presence every day in the values he taught us all to live by, and in the legacy he left. Yehi Zichron Baruch. May the memory of Dr. Arthur H. Wolintz continue to be a blessing.