Remembering Rabbanit Rachel Fisher zt"l


My lungs fell towards my stomach when I noticed the death notice this past Monday.
“Oh nooooo…..” I groaned under my breath.
“What happened, Eema?” Moriah asked me.
I had to wait a moment. My throat was too swollen with shock to speak.
“You remember the old grandmother I used to speak with when she was hanging out her laundry? Well, she’s in Heaven with Hashem now.”

Rabbanit Rachel Fisher was the wife of the rabbi of the Charedi sections of Nachlaot. She came from an important Yerushalmi family and was the daughter of a member of Jerusalem’s High Religious Court. She was also the sister-in-law of the revered Rabbi Dayan Fisher.

Rabbanit Fisher was also one of my favorite people in the world.

Over the years, we had countless conversations when I was picking up my kids from nursery school and she was hanging out her wet laundry.

We spoke about so many things– her health, the weather, her multitude of grandchildren, Passover cleaning, what it was like to grow up in Nachlaot in the old days.

What I loved the most about Rabbanit Fisher was how entirely down to earth she was. Pure goodness and simplicity.

Her life revolved around her home and her family and her husband’s Torah learning. But at the same time, while her feet were planted firmly on the ground, what most amazed me about Rabbanit Fisher was how she saw the world through purely spiritual eyes.

Rabbanit Fisher had been attending a daily netz minyan (sunrise prayer service) for decades. She read Tehillim whenever she had a chance.

But these facts don’t begin to do justice to the spiritual greatness of Rabbanit Fisher.

Since she wasn’t a person who just went to shul, or just prayed three times a day. She was a person who lived with Hashem. He was a part of her daily life. He was with her when she was cooking and cleaning and on her way to the corner store to buy a loaf of bread and leben.

Rabbanit Fisher saw the world, in a way, through Hashem’s eyes.

I will never forget you, Rabbanit Fisher.

Thank you for being my friend and for everything you taught me over the years just by being you.

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