The Rabbi and The Rebbetzin (42 page)

In
the course of his meditation he came to a frightening conclusion. He knew that
Abe would not spend the funds of the new company on such lavish furnishing. He realized
that Abe Levine was putting in money from his own resources into the building.
He called a meeting of the founders on the 11
^th
floor and voiced a
protest. Andrea and Shulamit were present but Abe Levine was not.

Bill
reviewed the situation and revealed to the other founders that, not counting
the artwork, Levine had invested more than half a million dollars of his own
money into the furnishings. Andrea thought that Bill’s figure was underestimated.
With the artwork, the figure could have reached a million or close to it. She
then asked Bill, “If the rich want to give, why the poor should not be willing
to take?”

Shulamit
started to yell at Andrea. “If it were your father, you wouldn’t talk that way.”

Bill
intervened right away. “Listen,” he said. “I am not concerned with how Abe
Levine spends his money. He is an intelligent fellow and he has more than
enough to spend. My concern is with our middle-class clients. When they see all
the gold plate, they will immediately assume that we must be charging very high
fees to pay for all the furniture and will assume that they cannot afford our services.
You don’t want us to be known as a firm that caters only to the rich.”

“It’s
not such a bad idea,” Shulamit said, “but I see your point. Of course, if we
see a poor client we can always send them to Finkel Nash. If he has just a
little money, we can send him to Haber Green. If he’s loaded, we’ll keep him
here.”

“Don’t
fool around, Shulamit. This is actually a very serious matter.”

Shulamit
responded, “It certainly is. But you can’t expect me to tell my father that he
should stop spending his money on me. If he didn’t spend it here he would buy
me another sports car. Maybe Andrea has a solution.”

Andrea
thought a minute and said, “You can tell your father that each of us would like
to furnish our own floors according to our understanding of our clientele.

“We
will let only really rich clients or distinguished politicians come above the
tenth floor. All commoners will conduct their business on the lower floors. I
move that Bill Mazer be the one to speak to Abe Levine.” The motion was passed
two to one.

By
early September, the new firm was operating smoothly. A list of client
inquiries was being updated daily and the new associates were asked to brush up
in their specialties. Andrea and Joe were sending out material to all the media
and Andrea was booking public appearances on local televisions for the other
founders when reporters were willing to interview them on their stations. When
there was anything to say about the new associates, short notices were prepared
for them in the papers. If any of the associates had written a book or
developed an interesting hobby, it was sure to appear in the press.

In
September, Shulamit used her option to take maternity leave from the new
company, but was active as long as possible. By now, Althea was fully trained,
and her legal expert, Dorothy Goldman, was organizing her reference books and
case studies.

Bill
was not able to convince his colleague Henry to leave Haber Green. With help
from Andrea, he searched outstanding lawyers who had their own firms. He also
found some interesting men who had at least five years of litigation experience
described in the resume file. After a goodly number of interviews, he found
what he was looking for in the person of George Adams and hired him. Until the
firm was ready to serve clients, Bill asked George to study the file of
potential clients and draw up provisional programs to process their cases. All
were advised that their cases were being studied and lawyers would be assigned to
their cases.

In
October, Shulamit stayed away from the office because she was expecting the
arrival of her second child very shortly. Nightly, she discussed a variety of
female names with Aaron. Her husband, however, refused to enter in such
discussion. “Until the doctor declares that you have given birth to a girl, I
won’t consider the names you suggested. If you can add some boys’ names and
make the name conditional upon the gender, I will listen to you.”

“You
know, Aaron that I’ve been praying for a girl and God has to listen to me.”

“Why
is that, Shulamit?” Aaron asked.

“You
know that I daven every day, that I give loads of tzedaka to the poor, I’m
married to a Talmid Chacham, and I help old ladies cross the street.”

“Did
I ever tell you of a famous rebbetzin who was far ahead of you in religious
activities? She had eight sons and didn’t complain once.”

“Doesn’t
the Almighty want me to fulfill the mitzvah of ‘Be fruitful and multiply,’
which requires at least one girl?”

“As
a matter of fact, He is not in the least concerned. Women are not included in
the mitzvah of procreation.”

“How
can you say that? Without me you wouldn’t be able to observe the mitzvah
either.”

“Not
true, Shulamit. Even if a man takes a woman without a legal marriage, and has a
child with her, he gets credit for procreation. I told you many times not to
pray for a child of a special gender after its sex was already determined. It
is considered a
bracha
levatala
, a blessing in vain. You have to
rejoice no matter what the Lord gives you.”

“That’s
what I get for marrying a rabbi,” she said in dismay.

The
Lord in his wisdom chose not to heed Shulamit’s prayer. He answered her prayer,
but the answer was ‘no!’ On the last day of October, Shulamit Levine-Adler was
delivered of a baby boy, seven pounds, three ounces. She cried for a while and
said, “I didn’t pray for you, kid, but since you are here, Aaron and I will love
you too.”

The
Levine family and all the visitors who came to Yehudah Nathan’s bris were
present at this ceremony for his new brother. Reverend Martin and Shalom Pinkes
officiated. The bus driver took Aaron’s family in from New York, and American
Airlines transported the Levine family from Pittsburgh. Bill and Andrea were
also present at the bris, and since Andrea was now on maternity leave, she did
not have to give up work to attend.

At
the bris, the new-born baby was named Naphtali. After the first bris, some of
the guest from Aaron’s family grumbled that the boy was not named after a closer
relative. This time they had no cause to complain. While Aaron had in mind
Rabbi Naphtali Adler, who followed his father as chief rabbi of England, his
own deceased grandfather was also named Naphtali in memory of the same chief
rabbi. The guests were not aware of the coincidence and everyone was happy.

Two
weeks later, Andrea gave birth to a very beautiful girl. When Shulamit came to
visit Andrea, she was still grumbling. “How come when I am so religious and I
pray for a girl I get a boy, and you who are barely religious get a girl right
away?”

Andrea
answered, “The Almighty didn’t answer your prayer and He didn’t answer mine
either. I prayed for a boy and He said, ‘No!’ I am not a sore loser. You won’t
see me complaining.”

Although
the event described in this book mostly took place in the early 1990’s, the
author wrote this book in 2012. For readers who are curious as to what happened
to the principles in the story, they can read the details on the next page.

ADLER,
COHEN, MAZER & LEVINE
, the new firm, grew and
prospered. After five years from its establishment, the firm made use of its
option to retain its affiliation. Although the firm now had to pay commission
fees in excess of two million dollars, the founders considered the affiliation
of sufficient importance to do so. When the tenant who occupied the first five
stories of the building moved out, Abe Levine quickly rented the space and
expanded the company. Total employment was about 250 and enough departments
were created to make the firm an all-purpose company. The associates who were
hired by the company when it first started became partners, including Althea
Jefferson, Joe Epstein and the poet Meir Kalman. Meir published two books of
poetry which were favorably reviewed.

ABE
LEVINE
(Shulamit’s father) retrieved the funds that he
had advanced to Bill and Andrea. He still retained his share of the profits
based on his original investment. After six years, he relinquished his position
in the company and Bill Mazer was promoted to managing director. When Abe lived
in Philadelphia, he worked full-time. After his retirement, he spent half the
year in Israel with his wife and daughter Esther and his son Sammy, who had
married and made aliyah. At other times, he stayed in Philadelphia and kept
himself busy with Aaron’s synagogue and his grandchildren.

SHULAMIT
ADLER
(the Rebbetzin) conducted her Family Law department
at the new firm and continued to expand her family, which now consisted of
three boys and two girls. She had very little spare time, but what she did have
she devoted to the synagogue.

AARON
ADLER
(the rabbi) had the synagogue under control. Some
members of the original group had passed on but were replaced by younger
members of the community. The school bus was still bringing younger worshippers
to the minyan. As his work stabilized, Aaron dreamt of new projects. He thought
of establishing a Kollel and a day school.

Shulamit
firmly vetoed any of such projects. “Aaron, you are now a family man with five
children and a wife. You start with a day school and your family will become
total strangers. The Pittsburgh day school had a budget of over a million
dollars and you will become a fundraiser. While I can’t rule out a Kollel, and
you feel the need to learn, you could easily attend a Kollel at the Philadelphia
yeshiva.”

As
of this date, Aaron has increased his learning but has not undertaken building
his own Kollel. Any remaining time that Aaron had he spent tutoring Yehudah
Nathan for his bar mitzvah and supplementing the school studies of the other
children.

BILL
AND ANDREA MAZER
(founders of the company) worked hard.
Their family increased to three boys and one girl and Bill, at least, was happy
with the ratio. Between them, 50% of the profits of the company (after paying
for affiliation with Finkel Nash) were shared by the original owners. Andrea
and Meir directed the public relations department with great success and new
clients kept calling for appointments.

ALBERT
NASH
was now approaching retirement age. He had relinquished the position of
managing director several years earlier and was now working just as a partner.

This book
was
inspired by a
brilliant lawyer, Tehila Gimpel, who coincidently is married to a well-known
rabbi, Jeremy Gimpel.

Additional inspiration was derived from:

 Esti, Shmuel and Yehudah Wexler, children of Rabbi Dr.
Isaiah and Dina Wexler;

Ari, Daniel and Benjamin Wexler, sons of Eliezer and Adele
Wexler;

Anna Wexler and Nava Urkowitz, daughters of Dr. Chaim and
Batya Wexler.

Brachot
– blessings

Bris
– circumcision

Chaver
– friend

Chazzan
– cantor

Chumash
– the Five Books of Moses

Daven
– pray

Gabbai
– synagogue sexton

Machzor
– prayerbook for the High Holidays

Mashgiach
– spiritual supervisor in a yeshiva

Mechitza
– divider separating men and women during public prayer

Minchah
– daily afternoon prayer

Musmach
_–
rabbinical school alumnus

Pesach
– the holiday of Passover

Rebbetzin
– rabbi’s wife

Semicha
– rabbinical ordination

Shachris
– daily morning prayer

Shadhan
- matchmaker

Shofar
– ram’s horn blown on Rosh Hashana

Shochet
– ritual slaughterer

Shtiblach
– small synagogues

Shul –
synagogue

Talmid
Chacham – Torah scholar

Tashlich
– Rosh Hashana ceremony to symbolically “cast away” sins

Yetzer
Hara – evil inclination

Rabbi
Shlomo Wexler
was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received his rabbinical
ordination from the renowned Rabbis Belkin, Soloveitchik and Shatzkes at
Yeshiva University. He also earned an MA in Sociology from Columbia University.

After thirty years in
the Rabbinate, Rabbi Wexler ventured into Computer Science, earning an MS from
Pace University where he joined the faculty. He also worked professionally as a
computer analyst at Consolidated Edison, Baruch College, Morgan Bank and Merrill
Lynch. He emigrated to Israel in 1988 and became the registrar of Neve
Yerushalayim Seminary for Women.

Rabbi Wexler is also the
author of
The Daughters Victorious
(Gefen, 2001) and
Brother Can You Raise a Million
(Devora Publishing,
2003).