Happy Trails to You

We met in 1985 at an Aish Hatorah class. He didn’t look like a Rabbi and she didn’t look like a Rebbetzin. They looked like two young people you would hang out with and shoot the breeze. But there are a few people in life that, every time you see them, you feel a shot of happiness shoot through your veins. Rabbi Nachum and Rebbetzin Emuna Braverman are two of those people.

Now thirty-five years later, Nachum and his wife Emuna are moving to New Jersey from the Pico Robertson community in Los Angeles. Can you believe they want to leave us to be closer to their children and grandchildren? How selfish.

In leaving, they are saying goodbye to so many people they touched with their kindness and Torah wisdom. I took my first ever Torah class with Nachum, and he was the first person I ever considered my Rabbi. I remember Emuna was busy putting out pitchers of water and cookies for after the class. It was probably the same spread they gave Sharansky on his birthday in the Soviet Prison.

In leaving, they are saying goodbye to so many people they touched with their kindness and Torah wisdom.

One Shabbos lunch, they invited me and my parents to join them. Nachum asked me what my definition of a “hero” was. After I babbled some nonsense, Nachum pointed at my father and said, “He’s a hero. He showed up every night at the dinner table for 39 years. That’s a hero.” I cried, and my father cried.

Jacob and Debby Segura go back three decades with the Bravermans. Jacob said what he loves about Nachum is “his inside and outside are the same. There is no difference between his essence and what he shows to the world.” For the last ten years on Shabbos, his wife Debby would walk to Emuna’s house to learn. Debby gets emotional when speaking about Emuna leaving. “She’s so generous and never loses patience.” Debby hopes she can continue her studies without her rock Emuna.

In 1999, Mitch Julis went to Israel with his family. Except for Mitch, this was his family’s first trip. A concerned Nachum flew out to Israel for 24 hours to see how they were doing. Mitch said, “Nachum taught me a framework and value system, so I did not have to make up my own. Nachum is my Rabbi, friend and a brother.”

The Braverman’s impact on Diane Faber’s life has been enormous. She said, “The Bravermans made me feel valued during the long dry spell which preceded my late life marriage. These are two vastly different individuals, who together have built a world. They are among my very dearest friends, and central to my spiritual pantheon.”

When Sarah Weintraub speaks of the Bravermans, you sense her deep love and respect for them. She told me, “Great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget. At some time in everyone’s life, our inner fire goes out. If we are lucky, it bursts into flame by an encounter with another human being. Nachum and Emuna kindled my inner fire and fanned my flames. Their wisdom, love and kindness changed the course of my life forever and a new world was born.”

Michael Abramson was at the first class Nachum ever taught in Los Angeles. He said, “They are a guide to a world I’d never imagined. Guide to Hashem and instructions for living.” He moved here from the Valley so that he could be closer to them.

Holly and Terry Magady met each other in Nachum and Emuna’s living room. Nachum eventually married them. Holly said, “It feels like an end of an era. We’ve all been on this journey together. I can’t imagine life in the Jewish community without them.” Terry added, “The Judaism that drew us to Torah, they reflect that and embody that. They changed lives through loving people. They invested in each person.”

I believe that what they tried to teach us in this community for the last 35 years is, most importantly, that we should know that God loves us. And we want them to know we love them. Until we meet again, Bravermans.

Mark Schiff is a comedian, actor and writer.