December 20, 2003 D'var TorahDear BSO Congregant, This coming Shabbat, December 19 -20, 2003 - Kislev 25, 5764, we will read Parshat Va-Yeshev (annual cycle - Genesis 37:1 - 40:23; triennial cycle - Genesis 39:1 - 40:23). A special maftir redaing comes from Numbers 7:1 - 17. The Haftarah for Shabbat Hanukkah is from Zechariah 2:14 - 4:7. For my D’var Torah this week I have decided to share with you a tribute I delivered to the congregation on Friday night, December 9, 1988. That date was Shabbat Hanukkah and I wish to memorialize Mr. Gerald Iselt on the 15th anniversary of his death. (December 7, 1988 – Kislev 29, 5749). This tribute was delivered in his honor. Read on and you will discover why I chose to speak about him back then. Interestingly, you may notice that my writing style has changed (I believe improved) over the years. However, the impact and power of this story remains just as strong as ever. Tonight is the Sabbath that falls during the holiday of Hanukkah. The characteristic that most people in this country know about Hanukkah is that it usually falls close to Christmas. It is part of what has become known in our society as “the holiday season.”
There are some appropriate and worthwhile characteristics that mark this holiday season. Even though there is an awful amount of waste and excess spending on materialistic gifts, every once in a while, the finest gift we can ever offer, the gift of the human spirit reaching out and touching another, is given by one and received by others during this season. Very often we hear about the people who share these special gifts in the form of holiday stories. Tonight I would like to tell you a brief story about a very unique man. His name is Gerry Iselt. I devote this sermon to him as a tribute.
I met Mr. Iselt 5 to 7 years ago. I was sitting in my office one afternoon when Annette buzzed me through our intercom. She asked if I would come out front and meet an elderly couple that had stopped by to visit in the synagogue. When I walked out to Annette’s office, I indeed saw an elderly couple. Mr. Iselt looked about 80 and his wife looked at least 5 years older. She, in fact, was older.
After talking for a few moments, Mr. Iselt explained to me that he had been orphaned as a young child in Houston. Somehow, Jewish people began to take care of him, watch over him, and return the kindness he seemed to easily extend to everyone else. The closeness he first established to the Jewish people became something he would never forget, and it continued to be a trademark of his life.
Mr. Iselt is not Jewish. He practiced no specific religion, but he knew that he was not born a Jew, nor did he ever convert. During that first conversation, and almost every conversation thereafter, Mr. Iselt explained how much he appreciated all that the Jewish people had done for him. He explained how much he cared for the Jewish people and how much he appreciated the Jewish religion, the little he knew about it. He asked if there was anything he could do for the synagogue, any kind of odd job, any kind of work. I really didn’t know what to tell him. After all, I’m not exactly the house chairman of our congregation. I was really very surprised when after I stated there really wasn’t anything I knew he could do, he decided instead to leave a donation to the synagogue. He asked if there was any particular fund in which to place this donation. I told him that the building fund might be a good place to contribute. He did so, and I want all of you to know that every time he came to visit thereafter, before leaving, without any prompting on my part whatsoever, he either asked his wife to write a check, or to take out some money to leave for the building fund. He remembered the fund I had designated in our first meeting.
If you look at the newsletters that came out about a year ago, when contributors to the building fund drive solicited by Irwin Greif were listed you will find the name of Mr. Iselt. The truth of the matter is that he had been contributing amounts of money to our building fund, to our congregation, long before his name was listed in the newsletter.
I’ll tell you why he loved to come here. He loved to come with his wife and visit in the afternoon. He loved to spend a few minutes talking with me in my office, and I loved to talk with him as well. Even if I was extremely busy, I made sure to spend a few moments with them. It’s especially appropriate that I speak about Mr. Iselt at this time of the year, because it was always during the Jewish holidays when he would stop by and drop off a card wishing us a good holiday. He would leave a card for Annette and a card for me on Rosh Hashanah, Passover and Hanukkah.
I will never forget the time he came in the office to show me that he had sent a card to Prime Minister Menachem Begin and that Menachem Begin’s office wrote him back. He wanted me to translate the Hebrew on the card for him. He was so proud. He was so happy.
From time to time, Mr. Iselt would mention a gentleman named Mr. Maurice Burke. Mr. Burke employed Gerry Iselt for the last 20 years. Remember, Mr. Iselt is in his 80’s. Despite his advanced age, he was able to continually perform odd jobs and serve as a messenger for Mr. Burke in his business. Mr. Burke had the same relationships with Mr. Iselt that Annette and I had here in our congregation. Again, it was a Jewish man who was able to give Mr. Iselt the dignity in life he strived so much to attain, and did achieve in all of his years.
A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a Jewish woman who happens to work at a local nursing home. She told me that somehow Mr. Iselt was referred to that nursing home. He had become very ill and needed serious medical attention. When asked for the names of contacts in the area, Mr. Iselt listed me along with Mr. Burke. This woman called me so I could be informed as to where he would be located in case I was able to come to visit him or in case they needed me to help in his care. Mr. Iselt’s wife had died a few years ago. He had no other family. Although he really wasn’t Jewish, he had no other faith.
This past Tuesday afternoon I went to visit Mr. Iselt in this nursing home. When I got up to the floor on which his room was located, someone asked me who I was. I responded, and before I had a chance to tell her whom I wished to visit, she said to me, “His room is down the hallway.” I wondered how she knew I was there to visit Mr. Iselt. They must have relayed the information in an intercom after I walked through the main entrance. That’s what I thought, but I was wrong.
When I walked to Mr. Iselt’s room I saw a hospice volunteer who was sitting with him. She walked out, saw me, and said, “You must be Rabbi Pohl.” She said, “You must have received our messages.” I said, “No, I haven’t received any message from you or anyone else about Mr. Iselt today or yesterday. I just came today because I had the opportunity.” She turned and looked surprised at me and said, “We’ve been trying to get in touch with you.” Mr. Iselt is very close to death.
I really just couldn’t believe it. Not that he was close to death, I could believe that. I knew he had been sick. I just couldn’t believe that this was the day I decided somehow to come to visit him. Before I went in to see him, I asked if they knew of any funeral arrangements that had been decided upon by Mr. Iselt. They said no, they really didn’t, and no one had asked him up to that point. He was lucid, although it was difficult for him to speak. He understood everything, and I decided I would ask him what arrangements, if any, he had made for funeral and burial. I walked into his room, and when I announced my arrival, I could see his body move up in the bed. I immediately realized how important it was that I had come on that day.
We talked for a little while, I said a few prayers, and then I asked him if I could speak with him about his death. He said I could, and I received a real sense of trust that came from him in that response. I asked if he had made any arrangements for burial. He told me that he had decided a long time ago to donate his body to science. I asked if he had arranged for any religious ceremony to be performed for him. He said no. I asked him once again; I actually stated to him, “You aren’t Jewish, are you?” He said no, he is not Jewish. I asked if he would want me to perform any kind of ceremony for him after he died. His face lit up as much as a dying man’s face could ever light up and he said to me, yes, he would, that would please him. I told Mr. Iselt that on the Friday night following his death, whenever that would be, I would offer a tribute in his honor at our synagogue. He nodded his head and squeezed my hand. I knew that what I suggested was the only proper way that I and our community could show appreciation to a man whose kindness, warmth and friendliness touched everybody with whom he came into contact; to a man who, in his own small, but very important way, contributed to this synagogue and this Jewish community; a man who formally stood outside of our faith, but whose spirit radiates everything that is good and special and holy about the Jewish religion; a man, who simply because he was nice, and never complained, received kindness and care in his life from people who really didn’t know him very well.
At about 11:15 on Wednesday night, just a few moments after Sharon and I turned off the lights in our bedroom, the phone rang. It was the official word I had asked to receive – Mr. Iselt had passed on. Although I knew it was coming, I was nevertheless upset. I fell asleep thinking I shouldn’t be too troubled, I should feel a sense of peace, since I knew that peace is what Mr. Iselt was finally able to achieve.
The Torah tells us that when someone is deceased and abandoned, when there is no one else in the community who can be claimed as a relative, it is the responsibility of the community as a whole to care for that individual. Even the high priest, the Cohen Hagadol, who normally is prohibited from any contact with the dead, in such a case is obligated to care for the needs of the deceased. Mr. Iselt, informally, but very thoroughly, attached himself to our people, and it is only appropriate that during this past week many of our people have come together to help him pass on from this world to the next.
May his soul be bound up in the bonds of eternal life. May this man, Gerry Iselt, who brought in his own special way, a great amount of peace to the people he knew, may he rest in peace at this time and forevermore. Amen.
P.S. Not long after Mr. Iselt’s death, several people came together and determined that a yahrtzeit plaque in his memory should be included in our Sanctuary. Should you wish to take a look at it; the plaque can be found on the board with the inscription “May They Rest in Peace” which was donated by contributors to the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund. It is the third board on the left. Mr. Iselt’s plaque is in the first row, the seventh plaque down. Our Friday night service will begin at 6:15 PM Candle lighting time is 4:28 PM. Our service on Shabbat morning, will begin at 9:00 AM. Our Shabbat Minha service will begin at 12:30 PM. Our Ma-Ariv/Havdalah service begins at 5:10 PM Our service on Sunday morning, December 21 will begin at 8:45 AM. On Thursday, December 25 our services will begin at 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM. Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukkah, Rabbi Philip Pohl
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