Words From Rabbi White

​As this week's double parasha is titled, in translation, "after the death: holy" it seems most appropriate to write a few words about my wife a"h, who passed away unexpectedly on the 2nd of iyyar.

Sorah Devorah (Sandra Sukey,) daughter of Yehoshua and Raizel Hirsch, was by all accounts, a remarkable personality. [Although her physical health had been precarious for the past many years, yet her memory, intellectual acuity, and sense of humor were extremely sharp until the very end.]

She was, in a sense, like a chasidisher rebbe.  She had a following of women from Israel, UK, Outremont, Tosch, and USA who were regularly calling her for her advice and guidance. [Although not chasidish, her fluency in chasidish accented Yiddish spread her reputation in Chasidish circles.]  I have heard from many people how her wise advice saved their sanity, marriage, and even life.

Although she had no formal training as a social worker, she sensed what a good social worker would have advised. Likewise, although she had no formal training as a librarian,  when she worked as a librarian at Beth Rivkah, many girls knew that, besides recommending an appropriate book, she was the one to whom they could turn with personal problems. Later on, although she had no formal training in special ed, she had a stellar reputation during the years when she taught remedial Hebrew reading at Lubavitch Yeshiva. Indeed, a Chabad rabbi told me that he never would have succeeded as a student in yeshiva had it not been for her encouragement and teaching methods.  And a senior teacher, older than my wife, cried to me over the phone how valuable my wife's guidance had been to her.

Her memory will surely be for a blessing, and may she be a melitsat yosher  for all of us.