Posted on behalf of RivkA's Family
A note from RivkA's Family:
As her family, we know just how special RivkA is. It's no secret that she has friends from all over and from all walks of life. We are very touched by all you who have called to offer support and with offers to help. It reminds us that she is not just special to us, but to so many others.
Jackie, a friend and neighbor of RivkA's, has generously taken it upon herself to organize help for the family when needed.
If you are available to help please email Jackie your:
phone #
email address
what times you are available. (after work hours, mornings, etc....)
and if you have a car
Jackie's email: jzb6768@gmail.com
Jackie's phone: 052-424-6149
Thank you,
RivkA's Family
A note from Moshe:
I am moved by the many offers of help that I am receiving, but I am also finding myself overwhelmed by them.
In addition to the time that I am spending with Rivka and tending to her needs, I am also trying to devote the time, care, and attention to our children that they need from me at this very difficult time.
I very much appreciate the constant phone calls that I'm receiving from so many people, and the outpouring of love, concern, and offers off assistance. But at the same time, I am simply innundated by them, in a manner that is difficult for me to process and that affects my availability to the children.
We do indeed need assistance, but it needs to be channelled in a way that allows me to spend the time together with my family that we need right now to support one another.
Your expressions of support and love mean a great deal to me. Please, do not stop sending them -- but if at all possible, post them here, where I can sit and read them properly at at a time during the day when my time and attention is not needed elsewhere.
If you would rather send me a personal note, please send it to thematityas@gmail.com. And please forgive me if I am unable to respond to them at this time.
For all those who are offering assistance, please contact Jackie through the contact information above. And thank you so very much, from me and from the kids.
Moshe
Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.
With love and optimism, RivkA
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66 comments:
Dearest RivkA,
We are thinking of you and praying for you. Wishing you and your family strength during this very difficult time.
With much love, Hannah and family
Dear RivkA, Moshe, and family,
Thinking of you during this difficult time, praying for you and for you to all have the strength to get through this together.
With love,
Melissa Ser
Moshe, please put me on the list for anything that can be done by email, phone etc. I'm sure that you'll have lots of offers and it's hard for me to get out physically, but my mouth and brain still work.
I'm hoping to come to see RivkA on Monday or Tuesday, and I'd like to check with you first to see if there's anything I can bring and what would be a good time. I don't want it to be one more thing for you to do - just keep it in the back of your mind if it's relevant.
Dear Rivka,
I feel like I "know you well" from reading your blog. You share such inspiring and insightful thoughts and stories. I have been davening and sending warm thoughts your way for a long time. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.
Warmly,
Erika Lange
to the friends of RivkA who are close enough to help... let me offer this advice -
don't just offer to help. do something specific. look for a need and fill it. the family is overwhelmed now and cannot figure out what it is you can do for them.
bring meals, get their mail, drive the kids places... be creative. :)
Dear RivkA,
Thinking of you and praying for you.
Much love.
- Leora
Dear RivkA and Moshe
How I wish I were there to help you and support you now. I will be visiting in a month and that seems so far away. RivkA, I love you and you have been a wonderful friend and inspiration to me and to so many other people. You are in my thoughts constantly.
Pam
Dear RivkA and family,
Wish there was more we could do from so far away. You are all in our thoughts and our prayers. We are sending you strength, love, and optimism.
Orieyenta and family
I'm a sometime blog lurker, praying for a refuah shleimah for RivkA.
RivkA,
I am a longtime reader but have never commented on your site. You have been such an inspiration for me and I am so sorry that you are not doing well.
You are in my prayers.
Mara
You are, of course, always in our thoughts and prayers. We wish your entire family strength to get through this difficult time.
Seth is supposed to go to Yerushali'im on sunday for a work conference and will be in touch with your friend contacts to see if there is a way that he can get over to visit (and I'm sorry I can't make it down too at the same time).
All our love from up north,
Shoshana (sheri) & Seth (Avi)
Rivka, I have never commented but, your blog touches me. I have been praying for you for a long time and will continue to do so. I really admire you and hope to read your writing for a longer time still :). Your family is in my thoughts and prayers.
I'm not close enough to offer any hands-on help, but I want to take this opportunity to tell RivkA how much I have learned from her and what an amazing person I think she is. I've been reading your blog for around a year now and find your posts inspiring and uplifting. I've been davening for you every day and really hope to see you back here posting again very soon. Hang in there, RivkA.
May Hashem grant you and your family a lot of strength. Love from my parents too.
Melissa Rayman
Dear Rivka and Moshe,
Sending you prayers for strength and recovery.
Chasida
RivkA - i only found out u were sick today. Wishing you a refuah shlema and a very speedy and painless recovery. You will be in my prayers.
Love mp
רבקה אהובה
שולחת לך חיבוקים חמים מכאן
שגית לב
Praying for RivkA and her family always.....Big hugs from Canada
Dear RivkA and family,
Prayers of love and strength from the "other" Rivka (aka "Frume Sarah").
Chazak v'amatz,
FS
You are always in my prayers RivkA and Moshe, you and the children are included.
Big hugs to all
Karen in Australia
Chizki v'imtzi. All over the world people are davening for you and thinking of you. May Hashem give you the koach you need to fight this battle too.
Lots of love from the UK.
Na'amah
Dear RivkA,
You and your family have been in our thoughts and prayers. We have been so moved by your blog, and learned valuable lessons about mothering tweens and teens from your numerous anecdotes about your wonderful children.
Much love,
Holly & Howard
I'm one of those people who pop in (almost) daily to read updates on this blog. I'm sure there are more like me. I hope Rivkah has a complete recovery, and in the meantime, I hope she gets a spirit boost from realizing how she's positively impacted readers from her posts. Her attitude, as well as her families attitude is amazing.
All the best
Esty
RivkA - We are thinking of you and davenning for you. Refuah shleimah!
Love,
Ilana
Can't add much to all that others have said - May you be granted a refuah shlayma - full, complete, speedy and whole. You and your family are blessed - by so many, from so many places, from so many parts of your life, past and present and may it be so long, long into the future. Keep positive thoughts - we are davening for you around the clock. Someone on Twitter just wrote to me - he's a block away from the Kotel and going there now to daven for you! May all these prayers and thoughts and dreams channel into loving and healing!
Shabbat shalom,
Paula
Thinking of you RivkA ....
Praying for you.
All the best,
Rachel in Washington, DC (a longtime lurker)
Praying for you and your family thru this very difficult and painful time.
Val in Connecticut USA
RivkA -
your love and optimism continues to be a source of strength for me in my "fighting the good fight" with cancer. I think of how I could see you and Moshe from across the room, and even without saying anything you could connect to where I'm at - in sharing the good days, the battle stories and being able to put the bad stuff in perspective. Praying and learning for you - and wishing and yearning that hashem should provide you healing and refuah, and that your positive energy and all you've given to all of us should be a merit for you -
Jeremy
RivkA - The KoD and I and all our children are sending you our love and wishes for a refuah shleimah.
wish there was more we could do.
with love from NY.
RivkA,
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Refuah Shlemah.
Much love,
Hillary (Try '90)
Dear Moshe, RivkA and Y, Md and A,
I'm sure the organizers (Idit, Chaia) will tell you how special last night was, where a group of women gathered and sang and prayed on Rivka's behalf. I felt tremendous comfort looking around the room at the motley crew of "Rivka Women" as I like to call them. It was a random gathering of women from all walks of life to share something spiritual for the woman who is so special to everyone there , in so many ways. Women with head coverings, without, with kippot, etc...all sending love and strength to you all through song and prayer. The evening was just so RivkA.
You have our prayers from the holy city of Shiloh. I'm glad that your family was here for a visit.
RivkA,
You and your family and in my thoughts and prayers.
Dearest RivkA - Loved you from the moment I met you - Tupperware!!! You have the greatest smile. Sending you my strength,support and prayers!
Laura
RivkA, you're in my thoughts and prayers daily. I love you.
Anima
RivkA. This morning I had this vision of Hashem lifting his head and saying, "Wow, so many, many prayers for this RivkA. So many mitzvot and good deeds with her in mind. They're coming from all over the world! From people of every religion. How could one frenetic redhead touch so many lives so deeply? I knew she was special, but, wow."
Praying for you. Michele
I have no words any different than others have already written.
You inspire and teach on life and living-not just with Cancer-but LIFE.
May you continue to teach us.
I'm writing to wish you a Shabbat Shalom, in every sense of the word "shalom."
RivkA - We all love you so much... you have been such a strong, positive influence in my life.
To RivkA's family - as difficult as this is, may you take some comfort in knowing you have the most amazing daughter, wife and mother. It doesn't get any better than RivkA!
To RivkA-
I am thinking of you and praying for you from Maryland. You are such an amazing person! I was telling Ravi how I so much enjoyed our Shabbat meals together and how your door in Katamon was always open to guests.
Ravi and I are hoping to come to Israel at the end of December. I love you.
Love,
Rebecca
RivkA ~ Again, I say I love you!!!! You've done so much for me even though we are an ocean apart. Today 10/22/10 (solar calender) is the day I wrote my first email to you 2 years ago! I was asking you how to say our name in Hebrew. After around a year of correspondences, you helped me understand Jewish culture better than I may have ever come to know myself, you helped me get the courage to go to temple, and to finally get to go to my first Pesach with Chava and Rav Gil, which has lead to very treasured friendships. And look at me now, I'm learning Hebrew!!! I love you I love you I love you!!!!
RivkA, you're in my prayers every day.
Moshe and family, I wish you health and strength, both physical and emotional.
Quite some time ago my friend Gail (who lives in J'lem) passed along your blog to me. She thought that we had much in common and that our outlook on life with stage IV cancer was similar. And so, for many months I have read each update both here and occasionally when you posted on the Inspire website, and while touched, I did not see the similarity that Gail saw. And then the lectures that gave were posted here... So much of what you shared in your talk with those girls about walking through life with stage iv breast cancer, were words that could have just as easily have come from me. And all of the sudden, I felt so much more connected to you. Here we are, walking such a similar path, in so many ways. You a La Leche League counselor and me a childbirth educator and doula, both of us with similar diagnoses --
Please know that I am with you. Your fears are mine. Your aches and pains are just a few steps ahead of me. There is so much that makes our journeys similar. I wish you Shabbat Shalom. A Shabbat that is full of strength, peace and love.
Sarah Fenner
I too am one of those people who read your blog almost every day, i have never commented but your courage and strength have touched me. You clearly have touched and affected so many people world wide. I look forward to meeting you the next time I am in Jerusalem.
I will continue to pray for you for a long time. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers all the way from Boston.
Jackie, I wish I could help. :-( But from the state of Indiana in the United States I doubt if there is anything physical I can do. So I will pray. If you think of anything I can do, please let me know through RivkA's blog comments here & I will jump at the chance!
Moshe, so many hearts' prayers are going out for you, the children & most of all our dear RivkA. I hope this brings you some comfort... that even tho it's 7:33am there in Israel, it's 12:34am here in Indiana and someone is praying. Someone is undoubtedly ALWAYS praying for RivkA no matter the day nor the hour. The wonders of the internet & cyberfriends all over the world, eh? God bless you all.
Peace during this time for all of you~ Andrea in Indiana
RivkA,
I've been thinking about you so very much. It occurred to me that you are the embodiment of the way Rav Soloveitchik taught us to deal with suffering: The operative question is what do I do with it. And you've done so much, with your family and by inspiring all with whom you've come in contact to be optimistic, to fight and to find meaning in everything.
That has to count with the powers that are.
Shavua Tov,Jeffrey
RivkA, I am too a follower of your blog for a long time and I am touched by your words over and over again. I pray to G-d that He holds your life in His hands and gives you all you need right now. Shalom and bracha!
Gabriela from Switzerland
We are davening tehillim every day, and I tell others to as well. RivkAH needs to stay with us - she is such a positive force to all who come in contact with her. Hashem should only provide her with just exactly what she needs at this time.
B'tikva u'b'tfilah,
Chaya & Henry Valier and Girls
RivkA, I am davening for you. I just posted your inspirational video on my blog
www.JewishMoms.wordpress.com
I requested that people daven for you. IY"H, may you be blessed with a complete and recovery.
I watched your video, you are such an inspiration!
RivkA, you don't know me, but I am moved by your blog and want to send you all my positive thoughts for strength to deal with the challenges that Hashem has sent you. May you and your family be blessed with only smachot and nachas in the future.
Regards,
Justine (Sydney, Australia)
Hope, tefilklah, love, and strength: May HaShem bless you all with it!
Hi RivkA
I too am praying for you
I went to a Barnard reunion last week and thought of the time I first met you at such a meeting and started following you on your fantastic blog
With much appreciation for you
Aliza Zutra '63
Dearest RivkA, there is so little I can say except to tell you what you already know - you are a true inspiration, you mean so much to so many people, so many people who have never met you love you and hold you in their hearts as do I. You are constantly in my thoughts right now and like many others I am davening for you. I am so thankful to know you and am sending you gentle hugs and armfuls for good wishes.
With love and gratitude.
x
Dear RivkA,
I started reading your blog daily when my husband was diagnosed with cancer - and it gave me a lot of strength and hope.
May HaShem grant your a refuah shelemah!
With thankful thoughts
Naarah (Vienna, Austria)
Dearest RivkA,
I'm continuing to hold you very close in my heart and my thoughts.
Much love,
Robin
RivkA - just look at all of the people that you have affected! You are a true hero. We are all praying and trying to better ourselves in your zechut. You have made the world a better place, and I wish you many more years of doing so, ad 120.
I love you, RivkA and Moshe.
Your strength, belief and optimism have given me the strength to pass the terrible years while my daughter z"l was sick.
Your struggle to live your life fully amazes me.
May G-d give you the strength to get through this crisis.
Hugs,
Naama
"...Update on RivkA: Her liver is not functioning and this is having a negative effect on everything. She's 'out of it' more and more. Please do NOT phone the family. Please look at the blog for the phone number/email of the person coordinating family help. She will also have updates. I'll post the blog URL in a comment. Please pray! ..."
RivkA, today is the day (10/24/10) two years ago that you replied to me, thus our friendship started; by your second email to me, you were already inviting me over if I came to Israel!!! I've been davening for you. I love you so incredbily much RivkA. I always imagined my first trip to Israel with you taking me by the hand, running through the streets of Jerusalem, going to Shul. I love you beyond words can express!!! Praying for your complete recovery and total restoration!!!
Love,
Rebecca Kern, from WI
Can't come to visit because I am on the Alyn Ride this week. Right now sending you love and prayers from Mitzpe Ramon.
I hope people are reading the comments,
The family asked please not to come visit RivkA at the hospital
They really appreciate all the love and prayers from all over the world
May G-d hear and accept our prayers
Idit
Dearest RivkA,
How I wish I was closer so I could physically help in some way. But since I cannot, I will continue to offer up prayers! You are loved!
"...Just an update - I've visited RivkA every other day for the last week and, as her family has been saying, it is truly day by day. There are days she is totally out of it and unresponsive. Those are the quiet days. Other times she is herself (albeit very weak) and let's us know what she wants :-)
Today was a good day. This evening Moshe was reading the letters we have written about how RivkA has impacted our lives. She enjoys hearing them. I only stayed a short time, but know she is enjoying what you have written and they mean a lot to her and her family. ..."
RivkA,
I'm a long-time reader who has never commented on this, or any blog, before. I just wanted to say how moved and inspired have been by your journey. Am davening for you in California.
Hi RivkA,
The comments here are testament to who you are. You have helped and given encouragement and hope to so many. Taught them how to live. You are a true artist in the ART of living. I'm a contemparery of your mom (never learned to spell)but I have learned, taken comfort from you. Your openness and willingness to give to others is truely amazing. Your hair may not be so red and bright as it once was but you are filled with the fire of life. I am praying and arguing with Hashem regarding you. I send you, Moishe, and your children strength. To my friend, your mother Joan strength and hope as well as to Ray Lynn and David.
Love, Hannah Voss, Seattle
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