The attention he gave to everyone that approached him, from the most elderly and important, to the youngest and most simple was an abject lesson in true ahavat Yisrael.
Like the educator that he was, not only did Mr. Rohr teach volumes by example, he also had a few favorite axioms which he cherished and by which he lived.
These bon mots included:
Unzere iz die beste, obber tzu besser iz nishto kein shiur – We need to be grateful for what we have and consider it to be the best, but we need to know that there is no limit to our responsibility to better even our best.
Vaiter! We must be dynamic, always moving forward and upward.
Ordenung muz zein – To achieve success in any facet of life, it is imperative that it be structured, organized and orderly.
L’chatchila ariber un ariber! – Translated roughly as “over over-the-top,” Reb Shmuel loved the energy implicit in this saying of the Rebbe Maharash, the fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe, as it was oft-repeated and expounded upon by our own Rebbe. Don’t get bogged down doing battle with negativity, the phrase teaches. Instead, jump above it all and keep reaching higher and higher. When focused in this manner, nothing is out of reach and even ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things!
Mit gezundt un menuchah - his favorite blessing, which has become our ‘official’ Shul greeting, wishing each person health and serenity.
When I picture Mr. Rohr’s Shabbat morning walk in the heavy rain, all of these axioms converge. And if, as our Sages teach us, rain is a blessing, then he and all of us were quite literally showered with blessings – on that day and on each day of his life.
May the memory and life of Reb Shmuel ben Yehoshua Eliyahu continue to be a shining example to all of us.
Rabbi Sholom B. Lipskar is an emissary for the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he founded the Landow Yeshiva Center in Miami Beach in 1969, and in 1981 he founded both The Shul of Bal Harbour in Surfside, Florida and the Aleph Institute and the Educational Academy for the Elderly. He may be reached directly at [email protected]
Reprinted from the Parshat Eikev 5783 email of Chabad.Org website.
