My Bubby’s Special Tehillim

By Rabbi Eli Hecht – Director of Chabad of South Bay in Lomita, CA

On Monday night, 13 Adar I, February 22nd, the Hecht family will be gathering in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. They will be commemorating the 43rd yahrzeit of their family matriarch, Bubby Sarah – Soochie Hecht, mother of the Hecht brothers, known for their community work buttressing Yiddishkeit in America and world over.

How do we appreciate such a wonderful woman? Can we truly understand her self-sacrifice – Mesirus Nefesh, Emuna, and Chessed?

Many ask how she was able to produce six frum Lubavitcher Hecht boys – Rabbis born in a treifa America. We know that in America everything is possible. But that a Galiciaoner family could transition to Lubavitch, that was a real miracle indeed.

I guess we can learn by the example she showed, being a living Eshes Chayil.

I knew Bubby Soochie very well. When I was a little boy she looked like a small lady wearing Benjamin Franklin style glasses. Her hands were arthritic and she always spoke quietly. She would often come to visit our home in Brooklyn. She came for Chanukah and Pesach yom tovim. She spent most of her time saying Tehillim or frying Latkes. She made few demands and spoke little. But this small person was the greatest Bubby of all times.

She had no time for small talk; she needed to finish her Tehillim first. The phone would ring. It’s a grandchild that has a school test to take…. “Could you say a little Tehillim that I pass the test” was the request. To her each grandchild was like a one and only grandchild. She made us feel special. We knew that we could always get her to listen to our problems. She would laugh and give us advice, adding a kapitil Tehillim to help us.

Once there was a panic. It happened when we could not find her misplaced Tehillim in the house. It had simply disappeared. A different Tehillim was offered but she wanted “the one with the black cover”. It was torn and well used. No new one or old one would work for her. Her Tehillim was soaked with tears and saturated with hopes! A new Tehillim just could not do the job. A different one did not have the fruma feeling, she explained to me. Somehow, as a child, I knew what she meant. We all have favorite things and the Tehillim was her favorite.

At times, I caught her crying while saying Tehillim. Embarrassed, she said there was no man in the whole world like her husband Zaydee Shea. “Don’t you know that he helped me with everything and most of all, that my boys should be frum and more? “Oy what is there to say Eli, some day you will understand”, and she was back to saying Tehillim. Now that I am a Zayda I have got the message.

Her children, uncles Sholom and Yankel with their children would come visit us and the excitement would begin. Then it was time to hear the special phone call from Chicago. It’s Uncle Shlomo Zalman wishing a gut voch to Bubby and then we would hear from uncles Moshe and Peretz and families. They would call or come by.

We heard stories about this family member and their friends from old Brownsville, the schools, shuls and the stiebelach. The meeting of the Friediker Rebbe during his visit in the late 1920s, when he met Zaydee Hecht, who cleaned the hot mikvah for the Rebbe. The Rebbe offered Zaydee payment but he declined saying, “Ich nem nisht gelt from Rebbes – I don’t take money from Rebbes.” The Friediker Rebbe then said something to the effect “De eineklach vellen zein meine Chassidim – your grandchildren will be my Chassidim.”

The old country came alive with stories in our house. About all the Rebbes that ate days, weeks, and even months at Bubby’s home. How her boys gave up their room so a Rebbe or a schnorr would have a place to stay. Even the most famous cantor, Yossel Rosenblatt ate by Bubby’s table. By way of thanks he sang a nigun, but only when they put a thick telephone book for him to stand on, as he was very short.

Bubby was happy that she played the role of a provider and it was all done with simcha. But a rule she had, was no loshen horah in her presence.

I believe the secret ingredients needed for a fruma family to grow are Tehillim and tears. By using a Tehillim and tearfully and carefully praying, Hashem will help all of us and our families.

May her memory be a blessing.