Alex loved the pleasures of life. Everything about him was big: his belly, his mouth, his hair (in the 70s), his appetites and his heart. He loved people, and always tried, in his often abrasive and convoluted way, to help those in need. Mark Horn, a Chabad Rabbi from Miami, said this at the funeral (paraphrased by me):
Believe it or not, Alex was one of the most religious men I have known. He passionately pursued the most important Mitzvot of lifting up the downtrodden, of helping the orphan and the widow.
Alex's funeral in South Florida was like the funeral in the movie Big Fish; a motley crew of ex-cons, lawyers, family and men of the cloth turned up to honor his passing.
Famous quote from the funeral from Uncle Jerry, my dad's brother:
My brother touched a lot of people in his life. Where he touched them, I can't say right here, but he touched them nonetheless....
My father died on the 15th of the Jewish month of Av. "Av" means "father" in Hebrew. The 15th of Av, also known as Tu b'Av is like the ancient Israelite Sadie Hawkins day. Supposedly the single women of Jerusalem (or maybe Shiloh...) would go out to the fields on this day and dance around in plain white clothes, and single men would come out and choose a wife from the crowd. Or something like that. A fitting day to remember Alex-- a day of dancing girls.
Tu b'Av is a day of love, a day in which ideas of marriage and love are auspicious. Or at least in the air. May those of us who yet walk alone in this difficult life be blessed, through the memory of my father Alex, to find true love, and holy satiation for all of our appetites.
Shabbat Shalom.
4 comments:
AMEN!!!!
Nice tribute,Stuart.
i read this on sunday, after having spent the entire weekend preparing for my teen programming to start this morning at an orientation...yesterday was a long and difficult day, i had dad's burning all day in the kitchen and spent the whole day in my living room working but seeing the flame out of the corner of my eye...
just like when dad would come and help me finish projects that i waited till the last minute...
weird how these things happen and how the thoughts and memories that we have
funny chaz-- as you posted this comment, i was just writing this little bio-ette for the HUC "face book," also featuring an image of me springing......
Stuart Siegel sprang, fully-formed, from a golden coconut on a beach in the Florida keys, his ears pierced with sapphire rings. He later was elected president of his senior class in high school, and shortly therefter earned a film degree from Boston University. He loves to sing on Shabbos, once lived in Romania and is a great fan of the Book of Genesis.
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