She carried on that dream in the last five years of her life. But it was a dream that she and Yitzhak had made together, because wherever he went, she went. Nothing could separate them: not distance, not years, not death.
When I think of the time that I spent with her, it is not the official occasions or the historic moments that stand out, but the more quiet and personal ones: the jokes that passed among us; the hard time that she gave me because I wouldn’t let the prime minister smoke in the White House; or the way she would reach over and primp her husband, this great warrior and peacemaker, before he went out in public, straightening his tie, fixing his hair and wiping his face. But like Leah in the Bible, Leah was not only the wife of a towering figure, she was a mother of Israel. It was on this ground that she and Yitzhak married during the War of Independence. It was on this ground that they built a family they were so proud of, and it was here that they worked with so many to build a country. It was on this ground that they built lives that spanned periods of war and peace, hope and fear. Their lives were and are Israel’s history. Now their legacy must be Israel’s future.
It is a great testament to this woman that even when she faced tremendous personal tragedies, she was still the one that many turned to for strength. All of us would have understood if she had turned away, if she had said “enough.” But she never did. No assassin’s bullet could take away her uncommon courage, no disease could stop her from working tirelessly in Israel and around the world to keep her husband’s flame alive.
The late poet Yehuda Amichai wrote a poem that in many ways could have been written by or about her, especially as it relates to her hopes for her newest grandchild born on Monday. The poem ends, and I quote: “I don’t want to fulfill my parents’ prophecy that life is war. I want peace with all my body and all my soul. Rest me in peace.” To Leah, my dear friend, we pray today that you rest in peace, and may all of us, in your name, go toward peace.
