You might think
that you know a neighbor of 40 years very well, but I was amazed to hear all
the many things I did not know, which were said about Rabbi Moshe Juravel at
his levaya. The feeling of loss and of love for the niftar was
palpable among the crowds that came to be melaveh him. You could see
that people found it hard to fathom that he was gone!
We moved to
Baltimore in 1984 and found ourselves right next door to the Juravels. Not only
were we neighbors with this special couple, but I have been walking with Mrs.
Juravel almost every morning for about 30 years.
Rabbi Juravel
devoted his life to helping other people fulfill mitzvos and enhance their
Yiddishkeit. No mitzvah was too small or too insignificant. He cared about the
young boys he taught, about the elderly people in an assisted living whom he
visited every Shabbos, and about people who couldn’t leave their homes to hear
the blowing of the shofar or the Megillah reading. He cared about the people who
came from other countries to raise money here and about boys who did not have a
father to learn with them or to take them to shul. He even cared about his
neighbors and allowed them to use his basement to make simchas. And he cared
about the customers at the The Hattery, the Juravels’ basement store, where
they sold clothes for men, boys, and girls. Twice a year, Rabbi and Mrs.
Juravel would travel to New York in person to buy clothing. They felt
responsible for the tznius level of our community and wanted to make
sure the clothes they were bringing were appropriate.
* * *
A friend of mine,
whose grandson was in Rabbi Juravel’s class last year, could not get over how
much her grandson loved his Rebbe. “Usually, as a rebbe gets older, he loses
the ability to connect to young boys,” she said, “but not Rabbi Juravel. My
grandson was crazy about him and learned so much the year he had him.”
On one of our
walks, Mrs. Juravel explained how her husband felt about teaching Torah
Institute’s fifth grade for so many years. “He took great pride in teaching the
boys the basics of Gemara. This is the foundation that sets the stage
for the rest of their life of learning. At one point, he wanted to try out an
older grade and taught the seventh grade for two years. But he came back to the
fifth grade because he saw that there is nothing like young boys and their
enthusiasm and his ability to teach at the beginning level.”
Rabbi Juravel knew
what was interesting to young boys and wanted to provide the boys with entertainment
– in a Jewish fashion. He was the one who started the Chemdas program
that is still being run in our boys’ schools. “My husband learned about this
program from another school,” Mrs. Juravel explained, “and he adapted it to fit
his school. It is a program that encourages boys from the third grade up to
learn and review mishnayos. If they learn enough, they get to go on a
special trip. In the early years, the trips were over Shabbos, and the boys
would stay in a yeshiva, like Philadelphia or Scranton. They had trips with a
Jewish flavor. For example, they went to a matzah bakery or to a tzitizis
factory. Sometimes they would go to a cookie factory – not just any cookie
factory but a factory where the boys could watch how the workers checked the
eggs before adding them to the batter.
“Even though the
contest was based on how much a boy learned, my husband would always bend the
rules and help a boy who wanted to learn but couldn’t do that much. He would
even learn with boys who did not have someone to learn with them.”
Rabbi Juravel did
everything in a way that was interesting to young boys. For example, when they
learned about kashering meat, they practiced kashering their own meat and then
had a barbeque. For many years, Rabbi Juravel grew esrog trees next to his house so the boys could see how esrogim
grow. They were in pots so they could be transported back and forth from the
yard to school.
This past year,
when Rabbi Juravel was sometimes not well enough to go to shul, he had a minyan
in his house. It was beautiful to see the enthusiasm of his former students who
wanted to come and join in so their Rebbe could have a minyan.
* * *
Despite the large
age gap between fifth-grade boys and the elderly in the assisted living next to
Glen Avenue shul, Rabbi Juravel could relate as well to them as to the young. Rabbi
Juravel discovered that he was able to relate well to the elderly and the
disabled when Mrs. Juravel’s mother was not well and was living in the Leisure
Chateau rehab in Lakewood a number of years ago. The Juravels spent time with
her on some Shabbosim, and after
his mother-in-law passed away, he looked for something to do in her merit. He
had the idea of going into a nearby assisted living and making kiddush, singing
zemiros, and in general creating a Shabbos atmosphere for the residents.
He wasn’t always popular with the administration because the activities occasionally
interfered with regular mealtimes, etc., but Rabbi Juravel persevered to bring
some Yiddishkeit to the residents. As somebody said at the levaya said, “They couldn’t fire him because
he was a volunteer.” Mrs. Juravel told me that during Covid, they only let paid
employees come in, so he suggested that they pay him a dollar so he could be a
paid employee.
On Pesach, Rabbi
Juravel would make a Seder there before going home to lead his own Seder. “We
often had a lot of guests, and making a Seder at the assisted living first
would keep everyone waiting, but my husband said that by the time we all found
our seats, chose our Haggadahs and got settled, he would be back, and that is
how it usually worked out,” Mrs. Juravel explained.
* * *
There are two
mitzvos that most people can only do with the help of others. They are
listening to the Megillah and to the blowing
of the shofar. Most people worry about their own fulfillment of these
mitzvahs and give very little thought to whether others are able to do them.
Rabbi Juravel was different. He took responsibility for everyone else. For
years, Mrs. Juravel spent the entire Purim answering phone calls from all the
people who wanted to have someone come and read the Megillah. These included mothers who couldn’t get to shul and
people who were sick in bed. Rabbi Juravel had a whole system set up and sent people
all over town. At the levaya, it was said that he himself read the Megillah 15 or 16 times on Purim. This
was probably easier to do on Purim than on Rosh Hashanah, when he did the same
with shofar blowing, because on Rosh Hashana you cannot drive.
* * *
Rabbi Juravel was
also an excellent ba’al koreh and leined
the Torah twice every
Shabbos. At the levaya someone mentioned that he would spend the
afternoon of a taanis tzibur in shul to lein for people at Mincha. In the last year of his life, when he was weak and
couldn’t walk to shul, he hired non-Jews to push him to shul so as not to miss
anything, and he continued to lein at
one of his shuls. In general, Rabbi Juravel was a person who did not give up
and continued striving to accomplish until his last breath.
* * *
The Juravels set
aside a special space in their house for people who came from other countries
to collect money and made sure that they were comfortable. These people often stayed
for a whole week. Some of them came every year and became friends.
We, the neighbors,
benefited the most from this special family in our midst. As Michoel Kelmar, a
neighbor, said at a recent sheva brachos (which was in the Juravels’
basement, of course), “Rabbi Juravel was the elder statesman of the neighborhood.
He was
available for everyone who needed him and was interested in everyone. If
we ever had a question, he was always available to answer it. The Khal
Chassidim Kollel is near our neighborhood, and the Rosh Kollel, Rabbi
Rosenfeld, gave a high-level shiur on
Shabbos. Rabbi Juravel attended the shiur
every week and was an active participant. Rabbi Juravel kept up a relationship
with Rabbi Rosenfeld after he left Baltimore.”
After they closed
their store, the Juravels fixed up their basement as a place to make simchas.
They were always generous and never charged people to use it. Our family used
their basement many times; it was so convenient and easy to set up, with the
table and chairs right there. Even when Rabbi Juravel was in the hospital for
the last few months, Mrs. Juravel allowed people to use that space for their
events.
What a loss for
our community, TI, and for our small circle of families on Clover Road. We
don’t always appreciate what we have until we lose it. May the community’s love
for Rabbi Juravel be a comfort for his wife and children. We all have a lot to
learn from this great person.
* * *
* * *
A Poem
by Rabbi Gavriel Berman
Rabbi Juravel, zt”l,
taught this year despite many health issues and acute pain to various limbs of
his body. The talmidim who were
privileged to be in his class saw an aging talmid chacham garner every ounce of strength he had to
teach them. But even under the circumstances, Rabbi Juravel did not just “get
by” in his teaching. He gave them the full “Rabbi Juravel experience” as he
never cut corners or made excuses for doing less than what he felt was
necessary for each child to succeed. This poem represents the expression of
love that the talmidim had for their
Rebbe, whom they miss very dearly.
Dear Rebbi,
Thank you for what
you taught us, from your very last class,
Just a few short
months we had you; they went by very fast.
We missed out on
some special things you used to do each year,
Safrus and melicha,
finishing Hamafkid, which you held so
dear.
But we will always
cherish the time we were zocheh to
have with you,
Despite the
doctors appointments and the early Wednesdays, too.
You cared for
every one of us and taught us how to learn,
Gemara with every
Rashi, on every page we turn.
You kept on chazering the Chumash until we had it
right,
Kapitel tes-zayin of Acharei Mos, the last you taught in life.
We’ll never forget
that funny dance you did in front of us,
To teach not to be
baalei gaivah; anavus is a must.
You gave us a tour
of all the mefarshim on the gemara
page,
You treated us
like bachurim despite our fifth-grade
age.
You brought in
yummy homemade food and gave out lots of treats,
You even showed us
what millet was and gave us some to eat.
You spoke always
of Reb Elya and the days of Philly of yore,
And other gedolim whom you met or who walked into
your store.
Seeing a Rebbi
struggling to simply put on shoes
Was difficult to
understand; what did you have to lose?
If you just stayed
home and learned all day and wrote down your chiddushim,
Didn’t Hashem
appreciate the Torah of talmidei
chachamim?
Now we know that
you had a point you wanted us to gain,
That Torah is so
precious we must learn, no matter the pain.
When we look back
at this sad time many years from now,
We’ll thank Hashem
for having you for these four months, and how –
Your only concern
this school year was that we should have hatzlacha,
And take the first
few baby steps to being a talmid chacham.
Now we say our
last goodbye to you, our dear, dear Rebbi,
Hashem decided
that your neshama must have already
been ready.
Thank you for what
you taught us, from your very last class,
The few short
months we had you, in our memory they will last.
