Tzippy’s Unusual Chesed
In Kiryat Moshe there are e-mail groups for women in English and Hebrew. And over the past year and a half plus since we moved here, I have used these groups a lot…More than anyone or anything else, these groups have enabled me to acclimate to life in our new neighborhood…
And consistently, over the last year and a half plus, there has been one woman who has promptly responded, providing all the answers to all my questions…If I search the name “Tzippy Kaplan” on my Gmail account, the following posts and responses pop up:
Anyone have a fax machine?
I have one you can use. Here’s my address…
I am urgently seeking a babysitter so I can attend my daughter’s bat mitzvah performance.
Here’s a list of babysitters.
Can anyone recommend an accountant.
I would highly recommend so-and-so.
Where will there by megila readings for women this Purim?
Here’s a list.
Where can I fix a stroller?
Here’s a few fix-it places.
Does anyone know where my 6-year-old can get a haircut?
Here’s a list of all the local hairdressers.
Seeking recommendations for a hall for my daughter’s bat mitzvah
Here’s a list of all the local halls with contact numbers. And mazal tov to your daughter and your family!
When I think of chesed, acts of kindness, I tend to think of traditional things like giving charity, cooking for a woman after birth, visiting the sick or elderly.
But since we moved to Kiryat Moshe, the truth is that the person who has done the most acts of chesed for me and my family (aside from Hashem) has been Tzippy Kaplan. A woman I never met or know anything about. Aside from the fact that any information I’ve ever needed and was unable to find, she was the first to provide it.
This morning there was a sad post on the neighborhood list, requesting urgent prayers for Rebbetzin Tzippy Kaplan, Tzipora Feige bat Liba, who had suffered a massive stroke.
Once, years ago, I knew a woman who was very sick. This woman distributed large numbers of tapes of Torah classes, and someone commented that her 1000s of tapes were rising to Heaven to plead for her at the Throne of Glory.
And while it might sound unusual, I feel the same about Tzipora Feige bat Liba’s thousands of Emails, each one of them a private act of chesed for women in our community.
May Tzipora Feige bat Liba be blessed with a full and speedy recovery!
I believe that Tzippy is also the daughter of Rav Meir Kahane…
yes, I just heard that she is
Amen!
Whoever put this on the neighborhood list wrote “bat Leebee.” My Hebrew name is Liba. Please ask her to correct this information on her list. This came to me from Libby Kahane.
Also Hebrew name is spelled Tzipora Feige bat Liba.
Can you send this to wherever it came from?
Barbara
thanks!
Baruch Dayan Haemet. Funeral is tonight. I have no further details.
She was incredibly special and I was an idiot to not accept more of her chesed which she so generously gave.
Hi Jenny,
I was at the Shiva this morning and this post on your blog was mentioned. The family was very touched by it.
Tzippy was an amazing, happy, giving person. I knew her since I was at Machon Ora and spent Shabbat in either her home or her sister Tova’s home – she also lives in Kiryat Moshe. I don’t remember ever seeing Tzippy without a smile on her face.
I’m sorry you never got to meet Tzippy, since she is the exactly the type of person you moved neighborhoods to meet and live next door to. Maybe we should speak on the phone some time so I can give you the names and numbers of some of the most amazing women in Israel who all live in the small area near your home! I was blessed to have such amazing examples of Jewish women when I became religious so many years ago.
Shabbat Shalom, Jenny. Missing you all the way from Mekor Baruch! 😉
Nofyah
thank you nofia, bhatslacha in makor baruch!