Imma and Miriam

The speaker went on to say that Rebbetzin Pincus had the same quality of never thinking of herself. Each erev Shabbos she cooked fish for her family and for her own father zt"l in Bnei Brak. In the early years no bus ran there directly, so she waited at the roadside for anyone who could carry the fish with him. Every week it worked out by a miracle of its own.

Little by little a neighbor was added to her list, because the woman found it hard to cook her own with her large family, and then one more woman, and another. She would phone and say, "I made too much. Would you like some?" The family never heard her complain about the effort.

She said every word of her prayers as carefully as a person counts money. In the middle of bircas hamozon nothing else mattered to her, so the taxi and the minivan could wait: right now she was bentching. Every morning at six she was up davening, word by word and in tears. A neighbor assumed at first that an avreich back from vosikin was praying aloud, and eventually understood that it was Imma, davening early every day.

At home, Abba's view decided matters. Only when Imma became principal of the girls' school did her children find out that she had views of her own. At school she gave the instructions, while at home she never did and would say, "Go to Abba." Her self-effacement was complete.

Miriam z"l also lived entirely for others. Whenever the family gathered at home for Shabbosos and Yomim Tovim, she took charge of all the nieces and nephews and sent their parents off to rest. Her own sleep was not something she worried about. She volunteered regularly for Yad Eliezer and made sure every volunteer showed up. The family never once heard her name a needy household. When the volunteers got to such a home she hid, so that the family would not feel awkward about accepting help if they saw her.

All of them spent their lives in the service of Hashem. Imma never pressed Abba to stay put or begged him not to leave her on her own. He would comfort her, "In this world there is no time. In Olom Haboh we will be together a lot." And not for one moment did she resist.