Page 15 - DAAT HAIM-1

ןיקלאוו םייח ברה
םייח תעד רפס
ונתב תמשנ יוליעל שדקומ
ה"ע הדירפ תב לזמ
This sefer is dedicated
Le’Iluy Nishmat our daughter
Mazal Bat Frieda A"H
A Remembrance of Mazal
on her fifteenth yortzeit
A woman’s role in life is to actively partner with HaKadosh Baruch
Hu in sustaining His world by building a family in great modesty,
joyfully nurturing all of its members and implanting within them
lasting values of Torah and Chessed. That constant effort spans an
entire lifetime; nothing comes without her investment of time and
total involvement. Her fulfillment comes from encouraging her
husband to grow and from the pleasure at watching her children
mature with a sense of happiness and stability that will give them
the ability to deal with all of life’s challenges.
Mazal fulfilled this role and more during her 34 years. She had a
joy for life that anchored her family and touched everyone because
she sincerely loved and cared for them, and in turn they all loved
her. She was the ultimate giver, always pleasant and helpful, always
accepting Hashem’s will without any expression of personal need or
hardship, with charm and grace, with humor and a fierce dedication
for the well being of her young children. With absolute faith in
Hashem she never worried about tomorrow; she was focused on
today and on the good that could be done today. She knew better
than most of us that life is precious and she would strive not to
waste a moment of it. She was a living Kiddush Hashem and an
example of how we all should lead our lives.
th
Mazal was born on the 27 of Nissan 5732
th
Mazal’s neshamah returned home on the 27 of Elul 5766.
םייח תעד רפס
its life’s lessons. Rabbi Chaim Walkin’s, Shlita, sefer Da’at Chaim
is an exquisite composition of Song to Hashem, an expression of
gratitude to the Creator and a guide to bonding to Him and His holy
Torah. The heart of Torah is the Mussar which is essential to life,
as without the Torah’s Mussar we are vulnerable to the influence of
society’s secular values and the daily assault of social media
Sefer Da’at Chaim is structured in eight themes comprising forty-three
short essays addressing man’s relationship with himself, with G-d, and
with his fellow man: themes like prayer, wisdom and knowledge, and
G-d’s personal guidance in our lives. With Rabbi Walkin’s permission
we added three ma’amarim to this sefer which he composed as part
of his Elul lectures appearing in Kuntres Kol M’Heichal. Elul is the
month when we are closest to G-d, aptly described by the mnemonic
Elul \ לולא, I am to my Beloved, and my Beloved is to me \ ידודל ינא
יל ידודו. The Song of these three essays is a loving dialog between us
and our Creator.
A note about the origins of the translation of Sefer Da’at Chaim:
Twenty years ago (5761) my son Rabbi David Aharon Levy was a
bachur studying in Yeshivat Mikdash Melech in the Bayit VeGan
section of Yerushalayim. He attended one of Rabbi Walkin’s shiurm,
a va’ad held in his home, and at the end of the va’ad Rabbi Walkin
gave David an autographed copy of his sefer. At the end of his years
of study in Yerushalayim David returned home with the sefer.
Five years ago I came across the sefer on a shelf in our library and began
looking through it, and liked what I was reading. The sefer appealed
to me and I wanted to share its content with some of my friends. In my
spare time I would translate an essay and give the manuscript to some
of the men in our shiur and the men I work with who reviewed it and
offered their editorial suggestions. Some edits were incorporated into
the text, and the essay was printed and distributed to our family and
circle of friends. That became a daily routine for several years, and
that the soul is called דובכ because its only function is to give ‘glory’ to G-d.
(Metzudat Tehilim – Rabbi Avrohom Davis)
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