March 1, 2010

Having spent the last week in Israel to tend to my ailing mother, a patient in the ICU at Hadassah Medical Center, I prepared to return to my home in Sacramento. Last night before I boarded my El Al Flight from Israel to Newark,NJ, I fired up my laptop to check my email. The first of many new email messages was from Rabbi Elie Spitz telling me that he tried calling me in Sacramento to inform me of the death of Rabbi Moshe Tutnauer. I read no other emails. I sat at Gate D-7 in shock. The funeral would be tomorrow (Friday) at 11am in Jerusalem. At that moment I heard the announcement for last call for boarding flight 0027. I boarded the plane and took my seat, still in shock by the news. Finally I said to the gentleman sitting on the aisle in row 51, “I need to get off the plane” and explained that I just received word that a remarkable teacher, dear friend, ‘my rabbi’ had died and was being buried in Jerusalemin the morning.