The Rabbi and The Rebbetzin (35 page)

With
anyone else, Pinchas Stern would have considered such promises as so much hot
air. However, with Andrea radiating such confidence he trusted her in full. He
also knew that she was a close friend of the Rebbetzin who was rich herself and
had an even richer father to back her up. He conveyed her words to the
executive committee, and they voted to start paying the rabbi on July 1
^st
a bi-weekly salary of $400.

That
night, Andrea visited Shulamit and told her of her success. Shulamit in turn
told her that Aaron served notice to the school board that he would not be
returning in September. He promised to return his records and his ID cards
before then. The chairman of the board expressed his regret, thanked Aaron for
his services and wished him well in his future endeavors. Shulamit thanked
Andrea for her efforts and told her that Aaron was once again as ardent as he
was after their wedding.

Mr.
Stern spoke to Aaron the next morning and said, “Rabbi, with an agent like
Andrea you could really cost us a lot of money. She must be a real terror at
Finkel Nash. What did she mean when she asked for a Chazzan for the holidays?”

Aaron
had once spoken to Andrea and mentioned that his good friend Shalom Pinkes was
a good Chazzan and might be induced to spend the holidays in Philadelphia with
his wife. Andrea agreed that Shalom sang very well since she heard him sing at
Judah’s bris. She asked Aaron if Shalom still had reservations about
officiating in a community synagogue.

“I
don’t think so,” he answered. “He might have expressed such feelings about the
Beth Israel synagogue in Dunberg but even there he applied for the position and
was disappointed when he didn’t get it. I am sure that if the shul offers him $1,500
he will come for the three days. He doesn’t earn too much teaching in the day
school and could probably use the extra money. Beside which, Ahavat Achim is
not a Modern Orthodox synagogue. It is a renovation of one of the most
traditional synagogues in Philadelphia and had observed religious traditions
throughout its existence.”

That
night Aaron called Shalom Pinkes and invited him to be Chazzan for Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The price offered was satisfactory to Shalom and he
agreed to accept the position.

A
few days later, Aaron called Andrea. He thanked her for her efforts and said, “By
the way I am also inviting you and Bill to daven with us during the holiday.
You would enjoy worshipping in our renovated synagogue. You have had a good
religious education and you told me that Bill went home to his parents for the
major holidays. We use the Birnbaum machzor and we have a paginator that informs
the worshippers what page number the congregation is up to in the prayerbook.”

“How
much would you charge for two tickets?” Andrea asked.

Aaron
didn’t take her seriously. “Between what you and Bill earn, you could probably
afford to buy an entire section, but if you need a discount I’m sure that I
could prevail upon Mr. Stern to grant you one.”

“I
never buy anything without a discount.” Andrea said. “I could pose as a
reporter for the Jewish paper telling the city of the services at the renovated
congregation, but I don’t think you would let me take notes on the holiday.”

“Don’t
forget to mention the rabbi and the Gabbai and make sure to spell their names
right.”

“Don’t
worry,” Andrea said. “You’ll be happy with the publicity.”

“Send
your husband my best regards,” Aaron said at the end of the conversation.

Following
the salary negotiations, Aaron turned his attention to the forthcoming
holidays. In the past there was no problem of seating the women for the holiday
services. The men’s section which could seat 350 would attract a little more
than 200 worshippers for the holidays. The balance of the seats would remain
empty. The women’s section in the alcove could seat about 100. Aaron was aiming
to fill the men’s section and enlarge the women’s seating area. The alcove on
the opposite side of the shul matched in exact detail the alcove that was in
use. He felt that if he could convert the empty alcove, he could raise the women’s
seats to 200. The only problem was that there were no benches to put in an
upgraded alcove. To keep expenses at a minimum, Aaron suggested renting seats
of good quality for the course of the holidays and see how many seats were
really needed.

Other
seating problems were far more complex and he found it necessary to form a
seating committee that would explore the situation. Here Aaron was faced with a
dilemma. He wanted to keep seat prices low so that he could attract newer
worshippers for the holiday. On the other hand he wanted to raise prices in
order to generate more revenue. In the end, Aaron kept the prices low and he
convinced the committee that during the course of the appeals, the difference
from previous years would be made up by the additional worshippers.

The
main sign read:

The
committee established special prices for children and reductions for indigent
families. When arrangements were completed, the tickets were printed. The
announcement for the sale of seats was placed in the courtyard. Aaron insisted
that the signs be protected by Lucite coverings.

Smaller
notices were displayed in many of the stores on Sansom Street. Andrea wrote
articles for the Philadelphia Jewish newspapers and even for the
Inquirer
describing how an old synagogue had come to life. The warm response surprised
all the elders and Aaron was very gratified. By the first of Elul, the men’s
section was virtually sold out and the women’s alcoves were three quarters
full.

At
the start of August, Aaron spoke to the owner of the building next to the synagogue.
The building was free-standing, starting fifteen feet from the wall of the
shul. The lot on which the building was standing measured sixty by one hundred
feet. The owner, James Riley, said he noticed a large increase in activity at
the synagogue. The shul was open afternoons and evenings and there was
increased traffic on the street. “Also you must have done a lot of renovations.
Is the Messiah coming?”

“Of
course, we wait for him to come every day. Until his arrival, we have renovated
our synagogue and have urged our membership to make use of our facilities. How
does it feel to be living next to a synagogue?”

“Awful.
I would like to move to another section but I can’t sell my home; no one wants
to buy a home next to a synagogue.”

“Have
you ever thought of selling your home to the synagogue itself?”

“Yes
I have, but until recently the synagogue looked so dilapidated that I figured
they didn’t have any money to maintain it.”

“Given
the situation you can’t be thinking of a very high price for your home.”

“I
would like to get rid of it and I will accept any reasonable offer.”

“How
about $40,000 in cash?” Aaron had enough sense to start below the final price.

“Not
that low, rabbi. Can you do a little better?”

“I
am only the rabbi. I would have to consult an executive committee to raise the
bid. Give me a few days and I will get back to you. May I have your phone
number, Mr. Riley?”

That
night Aaron spoke to Shulamit about the building. He said to her, “The price is
far better than what we paid to buy the land to build our own home.”

“What
will you do with the new building?”

“We
wouldn’t even have to tear this one down. With some alterations I could have an
office there while the shul can have a boardroom and a room for visitors. In
the basement of the building, which is partially above ground, we can have the
most modern mikveh in Philadelphia.”

Shulamit
was enthusiastic. “I think my father would be happy to build a mikveh and name
it in my honor. Shulamit is a wonderful name for mikveh. But please don’t
expect me to take the women down for immersion. Maybe Mrs. Shapiro would be
good for that.”

Aaron
mentioned the matter to Mr. Stern and told him the news.

“I’m
awfully glad to hear that Riley is willing to sell, he’s not what you call a
good neighbor. It would be worth the $50,000 to get rid of the man. Every time
a cat knocks over a can in the alleyway, he calls the police. Where will we get
the money to pay now that we are paying a rabbi and a Chazzan?”

“Forget
about the money for a minute, my father-in-law is willing to buy the building
provided you would let him put a mikveh in the back part of the lower level.
The lot is about one hundred feet long from the face of the building.”

Mr.
Stern said that seems to be a good offer. “Our older members would be glad to
have a mikveh nearby and some of them may actually use it before Yom Kippur.
You might run into some flak, however, from your fancy university professors.”

“I
don’t think they would object if the mikveh were not in the shul proper. By the
way, I’m not thinking of buying the building in the name of the shul. If I
leave Ahavat Achim, then I will turn the building over to the shul. In the
meantime, I will make my office in the front of the building and other meeting
rooms and a classroom will be in back of it on the main floor.”

The
Gabbai had no objections to Aaron’s plan and he said, “I will convene the
executive committee and let you present your project.”

“I
don’t think I can make the presentation,” Aaron said. “It’s not delicate for a
man to get into the details of a facility for women. My wife and her close friend
Andrea and maybe some other women of the community will be glad to make the presentation.”

The
next day Aaron met with Mr. Riley and told him that the synagogue would
increase the purchase price if he would allow a quick tour of the building. Aaron
mainly wanted to see the layout of the walls and rooms in order to estimate how
easy it would be to convert the building for synagogue use. He offered Mr.
Riley $50,000 for the building and he told him that Kaplan Real Estate would
handle the transaction. Mr. Riley hid his joy of getting the white elephant off
his hands.

Shulamit
called her father and told him that the building was for sale and she would let
him name the building and the mikveh in her honor if he would finance the
building. The building would be named the Shulamit Center for Women and the mikveh
would be called Mikveh Shulamit. It would be so modern and convenient that
Aaron expected the mikveh would draw married women from the university and
other parts of the city.

Aaron
had never built a mikveh before, even though he had studied the subject at the
yeshiva. He first thought of the dean of the yeshiva, Rabbi Rosenberg, to serve
as the supervising rabbi. He realized, however, that Philadelphia had a yeshiva
of its own with outstanding rabbis who could supervise the kashrus of a mikveh
without having to travel to a distant location.

Rabbi
Adler placed a call with the Talmudic yeshiva of Philadelphia seeking an
appointment with a competent rabbi on the subject of mikva’ot. He made it clear
that he wasn’t interested in the observance of the laws of mikveh but rather
the construction of a new and kosher mikveh.

The
yeshiva in Philadelphia was an established institution from the year 1963. The
inspiration came from Rabbi Aaron Kotler, of blessed memory, the founder of the
yeshiva in Lakewood. Among the distinguished faculty there were such men as Reb
Shmuel Kanievsky and Rabbi Elya Svei, of blessed memory. He was granted an
appointment and given a tour of the yeshiva. They were glad to hear that he was
a
musmach
from a European-style yeshiva, whose dean, Rabbi Rosenberg,
was well-known to them. They were also happy to learn that Rabbi Adler had an
extensive knowledge of mikva’ot and had learned the relevant laws as part of
his
Semicha
program. He explained to the rabbi who was appointed to his
project that he was the rabbi of Ahavat Achim in the university area. The rabbi
was surprised that Ahavat Achim had a rabbi, since he heard that the shul was
in a state of decline.