Our living Sefer Torah

Rabbi Dubrawsky, I miss you so.

You taught me to do everything I can and then to let H”M take over.

I think of you as brilliance, insight, learning, encouragement, honesty, integrity, smiling in face of great adversity.

Rabbi Lipa Dubrawsky was and is a living Sefer Torah.

That he and his wife and family lived in Vancouver has always been a wonder to me. Constantly, I would share with others our wonder and soul-deep thankfulness that he chose to live here amongst us.

To start each week with his teaching, through his own heart and soul that he brought the teachings of his Rebbe to us all, this was one of his greatest gifts.

He taught us that there is only good, that H”M gives us only good. We may not be able to understand how some of the things that happen can possibly be for the good, but Rabbi Dubrawsky taught us that no matter how things appear, all is for the good.

Now, with our loss of his luminous presence, I find myself fighting despair and desperation. I am thinking of Dena and the children, and how they will be able to continue. I am thinking of Dena responding to someone’s request about how to help, “Bring him back!”…oh, if only we could.

He taught us too, that a Tzaddik is even more present after physical passing. He taught us that the Rebbe is still and even more with us now. And with this teaching we must know now that Rabbi Dubrawsky is with us, even more than he was able to be in his life.

He worked so hard against such horrific opposition to bring joy and learning and excellence to all he saw and met. He and Dena brought us into their home and their hearts, and he gave us his soul. How we are to live without his physical presence, is what he tried to teach us. We will all have to try to remember and live by his teachings, and the teachings he brought us daily and weekly of his own teachers, and his Rebbeim.

I suppose that as time goes by, more clarity will come, but at this time, the pain and desperation and loss are overwhelming. As he said many times, “an ocean of tears”.

Please, G-d, take care of him so that he has the peace and kindness and support that he needed and was not given here in the difficulties and challenges of Vancouver. Please give his wife and all of his family the blessings they need and deserve.

With all my heart and everything in me, I wish for his peace and rest.

As he named me at his own Seder

Aunty Rivka