Just four days after Simchas Torah, one of the most joyous days on the Hebrew calendar, the Baltimore Jewish community lost a gem: Rabbi Dr. Tuvia Meister, z”l. Rabbi Meister, as he preferred to be called, who attained semicha in midlife while still a practicing radiologist, was a man with a plan – actually, two plans. The first was a 20-year plan to learn all of Torah so he could enter the next world as a learned man. His second goal – beginning from when he was diagnosed with cancer, 10 years ago – was to leave this world a good man in the eyes of his wife and children. He accomplished both, in addition to making a tremendous impact in Baltimore and beyond with his caring heart and kind deeds.
Rabbi Dr. Meister’s far-reaching kindness extended to Kiryat Sefer, in Eretz Yisrael, where his bechor (firstborn son) Elchonon lives with his family. During Chanukah, during my visit my bechor and his family, who also live in Kiryat Sefer, Elchonon shared the story of a significant donation his father made to the community.
“My father had hoped to retire in Kiryat Sefer; it never happened,” said Elchonon. “When he visited me, shortly after my paternal grandfather was niftar, I happened to mention that there was a campaign to finish construction of the shul near the apartment my father had bought in Kiryat Sefer. He was hoping that this would become his shul after moving here. At the end of his stay, my father pledged money to pay off the shul’s chovos (obligations) and finish the remaining construction. He said it would take him six or seven years to get all the money together, and the shul was fine with that. About a year later, the shul made a chanukas habayis (dedication). It was the right place at the right time. It was still within the year of my father’s father passing away, and the shul needed it. Unfortunately, though, my father’s dream of making aliyah didn’t work out.”
Seeing Bais Knesses Ohel Yosef Mayer, named for Rabbi Dr. Meister’s father, Yosef Mayer, and hearing the vibrant sing-song of Torah learning from outside the building, was one of the highlights of my trip to Israel. I knew that Reb Tuvia was schepping nachas on high from the kollelim that are housed in the shul, in addition to all the minyanim.
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Although Elchonon’s father’s contribution to this shul was no secret, as the plaque adjacent to the shul’s back door testifies, the majority of Rabbi Dr. Meister’s various tzedaka efforts were clandestine – kept secret from even his family. “We really didn’t know very much about our father’s tzedaka efforts; we only discovered during shiva how he helped people,” Elchonon said. “My father never discussed these things. The couple of times we did happen to find out stories about the tzadaka he gave, he would say, ‘Okay, that’s it, now keep quiet.’ It was not a thing in our family to discuss.”
Bais Knesses Ohel Yosef Mayer was not Rabbi Dr. Meister’s first or only contribution in Eretz Yisrael. Years ago, when the Meister family lived in Emanuel, he opened a state-of-the-art health clinic. “Nebach, on Yom Kippur, a boy choked to death, and they didn’t have the proper equipment, so my father took action and went to America to fundraise,” recounts Elchonon. “The clinic he started saved a bunch of people. For a good couple of years after we moved back, he was still very involved with it, raising money from afar.
“My father was a man of action, and he always found ways to make people feel good when giving them money in what could be a sticky situation,” adds Elchonon. To provide just a glimpse of his father’s heightened sensitivity when dispensing tzedaka, Elchonon shares this story that was revealed by a friend of his father at the shaloshim in Baltimore:
“About 10 or 12 years ago, a certain type of pre-made plastic Chanukah licht caused fires in some homes including that of my parents. If my father hadn’t noticed the fire and quickly put it out, our house would have burned, too. Everyone was upset about the poor quality of the licht and were calling the manufacturer a gonif (thief). With everyone returning them, it was a big loss of money for this frum owner. Somehow, my father figured out who the owner was. Realizing the person’s huge loss of parnassa, and figuring that he did not do it on purpose, and knowing that the Chinese are not known for being on the up-and-up when it comes to manufacturing, my father sent him money to pay for his chasanas. How this friend of my father knew about this, I don’t know. My father never said a word about it!
“My father was a very pashut (simple) person,” Elchonon stresses. Although, baruch Hashem, he had financial means, he lived a very pashut lifestyle; there was no spoiling us. I can still remember the impression made on me, at the age of 19, when I happened to overhear a conversation at Shabbos Mincha on the day of my brother’s bar mitzva. My father, characteristically, would make a very basic kiddush for our bar mitzvas: sheet cake and maybe white fish salad and soda, no hot dishes or anything fancy. Unbeknownst to my father, I overheard someone say to him, ‘I want to thank you, Dr. Meister, for making the kiddush that you made.’ When my father questioned why, the man responded, ‘Because I am making a simcha in the next couple of weeks, and I do not have money. If you are able to make the kiddush that you made, I won’t feel bad making the kiddush that I am making.’”
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Back home, in Baltimore, the rest of the Meister family shared just a few of the many anecdotes that illustrate the effect that their beloved husband, father, and grandfather made on his family and the greater Jewish community. Many of them were unknown until they were revealed during the shaloshim period.
Reb Tuvia’s ingenuity was already evident at the age of three, as his mother demonstrated with this incredible story: When his parents took him to visit his grandparents, he played with a ball of string for hours. He rigged up the string to a manual pencil sharpener, which, when the handle was turned, would not only turn on the sink faucet but also open the oven and refrigerator doors!
His brilliance and his kindness were revealed by patients, relatives of patients, and the family. Here are just a few examples:
“My father-in-law was in the hospital and had to have an unexpected procedure done at night when none of the family was there. Dr. Meister passed by him, realized he was cold, and proceeded to get him a blanket.”
“I went to the emergency room, and the doctors kept doing tests but could not figure out what was wrong. Dr. Meister insisted on doing one more test. It found the actual medical problem, and the emergency surgery they performed saved my life.”
“When my husband was in the hospital, Tuvia would take the night shift so I could go home. He was the only one who could make my husband laugh. He also gave up the zechus (merit) for building Ohel Yosef Mayer for my husband to get better, which, baruch Hashem, he did. Tuvia did this after receiving a letter thanking him for all he did for the shul and blessing him for good health.”
Reb Tuvia was the model neighbor as well. Soon after the Meisters moved into their house, they started to build an addition. A neighbor who was quite ill was not able to sleep all night due to pain. He would finally fall asleep in the morning, right when the construction for the addition began, and it would wake him up. The neighbor felt uncomfortable approaching the Meisters to ask them to start the construction at a later time, since they were the young, new neighbors on the block and because it was completely justifiable to start work at that time. When the neighbor finally approached them, Reb Tuvia and Rivka felt so bad, they went to their house and gave a lengthy and sincere apology. This neighbor was impressed that they didn’t just change the start time of the construction but took the extra step of coming over to apologize.
Reb Tuvia’s compassion for his fellow man extended to the business realm. In 2008, Reb Tuvia realized that some of his stocks were going to fail. Knowing that some people had relied on his advice and bought those stocks – and might not realize they needed to sell – he decided that he must not bail himself out. He thought it was only right that he suffer the loss along with them.
Reb Tuvia’s love of Torah and learning remained with him until his dying day. He was proud of the Kollel he started in Yesodei HaTorah, and would call the Kollel yungermen from Sinai Hospital, where he worked, leaving long messages about questions they asked. The prize for the extra credit tests for the Kollel students were gift certificates to the now-defunct Brasserie restaurant so they could take their wives out to eat.
On the last Yom Kippur of his life, when he was so gravely ill, Rabbi Dr. Meister gave his wife Rivka and daughters a complicated shiur about the differences between a neder and a shevua. When he was asked what prompted him to share it, he replied, ‘I was just so amazed by it, I had to tell you.’
Reb Tuvia’s passion and appreciation for Torah learning is what prompted him to make a written and signed pact with his father-in-law, “Grandpa Lowitz.” It documented that whoever passed away first would finish what the other person was learning.
Lastly, Rabbi Dr. Meister believed that, in addition to tzedaka, giving comes in many forms. Importantly, Rabbi Meister’s incredible devotion to learning Torah and his diligent work each and every day on his middos were his means of bringing the goodness of Hashem into this world.May the lessons learned from the life of this extraordinary human being serve as an inspiration for us all. May his neshama (soul) be a meilitz yosher (advocate) for all of us, and may we be zocheh to the Geula Shleima (Redemption) speedily in our days!
