In our family - we know that the blessing of our Patriarch, Rabbi Tobias Geffen, z"l is effective. In his diary, on June 26, 1943, after Shabbat, he wrote at the top of the page. This is the translation from Yiddish - "Today is the 5th anniversary of my daughter, Bessie. She and her husband should have length of days - "lange yahren". Today we remember not only the length of days of Bessie Geffen Wilensky, but what those 96 years contained.

When Bessie decided to say goodbye to her children, grandchildren , great-grandchildren, her brother and her nephews and nieces and her friends in New Orleans, it was King weekend. In Atlanta, her home from the age of two into her early twenties, was on Hunter St. which is now Martin Luther King Drive. There at the homestead the family grew to eight - four boys and four girls with their parents. Each imbibed the love of knowledge, of yiddishkeit, of zionism of patriotism, of tzedaka, of kibud av veam - honoring one's mother and father.

Bessie was number 5 in the family, the only one born in Canton, Ohio. So the Buckeye became a Peach in blossom, building her nest and family with her beloved Carl in New Orleans. When Bessie was being carried by Bubbie in 1908, the city of Canton was witness to a most unusual event. The McKinley presidential monument was dedicated by then president Teddy Roosevelt who rode up on a horse dressed in his Rough Rider uniform. He jumped from the horse to the platform as the crowd cheered "Hey Teddy, Hey Teddy." What was unusual for the small Jewish community in Canton was that the dedication occurred on the morning of Shavuot. The services were held early so every Jewish person, who so desired, could attend. All the new theories about providing stimulation for the fetus in the womb could well have been forecast through this event in Bessie's pre-birth existence. All the enthusiasm, integrity and joviality of Teddy Roosevelt marked her life.

In the Torah reading this Shabbat we arrive at that moment when the Jewish people finally were able to leave Egypt - the Exodus began after all the years of enslavement. In order to make sure that our ancestors with their slave mentality received a material reward as the left, God commanded Moses to tell them to borrow all types of jewelry from their Egyptian neighbors. The Midrash paints the scene focusing beautifully on one aspect of this slave generation. The Israelites, the rabbis tell us, were going from house to house to insure that they had sufficient wealth. Moses had another task - more significant. Moses sought the bones of Joseph. The promise had been made before Joseph's death that his bones - his remains would be taken when the Exodus began. The Midrash builds the tale, Thomas Mann embellishes - from the bottom of the Nile - the ark with bones of Joseph arises and Moses takes them with him.

I mention this act of Moses because I believe it characterizes Bessie. There was never a time when she was not dealing with the details, with the nitty-gritty - Bubbie always saw her daughter Bessie as the key to maintaining the household. She called upon Bessie when she needed help in the growing years of the family. Bubbie once said - "Lottie was the assistant breadwinner, Joel was gone very early, Sam had to be handled with kid gloves, Annette and Helen were the princesses, Abe the student, Louis the attorney - Bessie made sure there was enough food, that there was enough money to pay bills, that all her siblings had clothes, and she helped Tevel and me make it through those difficult years.

Aside from dealing with the Geffen household in her own pragmatic way, Bessie had another characteristic which can be found in the Sedrah this week. We all remember how Moses hesitated about leading the Israelites into the Reed Sea in spite of God's command to act. The people were hesitant - criticizing Moses for even bringing them out of Egypt. Finally Moses said "Al Tirau - Hityatzvu - Have no fear -Stand up". Unfortunately, still nothing happened - Moses was glued to his spot - but the leader of the tribe of Judah jumped into the water and the sea split.

For the family, for the Shearith Israel synagogue, for Young Judea, for Hadassah, Bessie was never afraid to jump in and get things underway.

We return to the thirties - Roz Baiser lives in the apartment under us in Atlanta now. Roz, whose maiden name was Stone, looked upon Bessie, 3 years her elder with a sense of real respect. The Stones lived on Washington Street just across the street from the Geffens. The Stones had four daughters - not any sons. Roz and I talked last night. "When I first met Bessie, she was one of the Geffen girls. I spent a lot of time around the shul because my grandfather, Mr. Robinson was the shammas. Then my parents moved to Washington Street. Even though Annette and I were the same age, I recall Bessie quite well. I was a flapper - skirts above my knee - Bessie was prim - her skirts below her knee. I always had the sense that she was very intelligent, basically because whenever I got off the streetcar there was Bessie on the front porch of the Geffen home reading. I understand that she studied at Emory, but with the sweaters she wore - I knew that she could be a Smith College girl. Only the rich could afford a Smith education."

"I can still see Bessie with her page boy haircut and her wonderful smile. I knew that she hung around Atlanta even after she graduated Emory, but I assumed she wanted to help her parents. Glad that she had such a fine husband and three wonderful children. Pleas express my personal condolences to them. Their mother was a very fine woman and their grandparents were exceptional human beings who made sure that all their children were educated."

Since some of the Shearith Israel synagogue records are still in my hands, I brought today a testament to Bessie's devotion to her parent's livelihood.

Late 20s the shul about to go down the tubes - since the big shul moved to Washington Street, in 1921. Shearith Israel members had jumped ship as they moved to the southside and joined the big shul. Shearith Israel was on Hunter Street so as the twenties began to end - a piece of property was bought at 500 Washington Street - today a parking lot for Turner field. Shearith Israel started its process of raising money for a new shul - Louis was the attorney and Bessie in Emory was the bookkeeper. In early 1929 the beis medrash in the back was finished - the front part of the shul began to go up - soon a cornerstone was laid - It was September 1929. Who knew the stock market would collapse?

Bessie's clear handwriting made sure the books were balanced. The Shul was saved, and Bessie became the secretary of the Atlanta Jewish Preparatory Academy and the Shearith Israel Sunday School. The Academy met a 593 Washington Street on a daily basis - on Sundays the school was in session with several hundred children. Bessie, a teacher by profession, helped her brother Sam run the school.

From Jacksonville he appeared tall and handsome M. Carl Wilensky z"l. A boarder at the Geffen's as he went to Emory Medical School. Rumors we have all heard said that there was romance. Carl graduates finally reaching New Orleans in 1934. The clock is ticking! We have been told that there was a lively correspondence, but the years pass - my parents marry - "maid of honor - December 26, 1934 - Bessie Geffen of Atlanta. She was attired in a wine colored afternoon gown and carried an arm bouquet of Talisman Roses." Virginian Pilot of Norfolk. Annette starts to get serious - Sam too - Bessie is waiting.

Our zaddie - decides to take matters into his hands - he travels to Oklahoma City to find a man in prison who left his wife in Atlanta without giving her a "GET". Then it is on to New Orleans - he gets off the train - takes the streetcar to the building where Carl was practicing. Legend has it that Carl was surprised to see him - Rabbi - vos macht eich - und der frou ind der kinder - Zaddie replies and then those famous words Tschein Tzeit - far a Chaseneh far meine tochter Bessie - in the lingo - Doctor what are your intentions? In less than a year they were married - on a beautiful sunny day in the garden at 593 Washington. I was even there in my mother's stomach of pregnancy.

This duo was to be - Bessie's Hebrew name was "Batya" - Carl's Moshe Kalman - The Midrash tells us that Pharoah's daughter was Batya - Batya found Moses in the bullrushes and raised him in the palace - caring for his needs. Having bee present on a few occasions in the wonderful Wilensky household in New Orleans - I can assure you that Aunt Bessie - Batya - took care of her Moshe - I rode with her as she picked him up late at night at his office in the Maison Blanch building - I can see her serving him at night - and then breakfast late in the morning when he got up. Then she would chauffeur him down to his office for another day of seeing patients. They loved each other very dearly, but Bessie knew how to march to the drumbeat of Carl's manner of living life and practicing medicine. The family grew from Jane to Yankee to David. Since my father was in the army in Mississippi from 1941 on and my mother and I were with him, I got to meet Aunt Bessie, Uncle Carl, Jane and Yankee when I was a little boy. I was walking home from shul on Pesach when the word came that David had been born. Aunt bessie was terrific with her three. She knew how to encourage you to do what she felt you could achieve. You, Jane, and you, Yankee, and David, from afar have demonstrated that the intellectual, Jewish and communal leadership gifts she transmitted to you have rung true in your lives.

How blessed you were to have Bessie as your mother. The rabbis tell us that an em beyisrael is a great title to bear but an em bemishpacha - she cared for you when you were sick, she wiped away the tears when you were hurt, she knew how to make you laugh and she loved to make those favorite delicacies which you loved. Most of all - her lev - her heart - was filled with her three and their spouses Ben, Shellie and Sheila and the 10 grandchildren and all the great grandchildren.

Rita sent me today to offer special words of tanhumim. She recalled to me last night how Aunt Bessie provided us with such warm hospitality in 1965 when we were on the way to my post at Fort Sill Oklahoma. Those few days and the many other times we saw Aunt Bessie were very memorable ones.

We visited Bessie in Chicago in 1997 when our children Tuvia and Keren were studying there. What I sensed then was that the comfort of Bessie's life in her new home really existed because Shell made sure that her every need was taken care of. As my mother became a daughter to Rabbi and Mrs. Geffen so Shelly became Bessie's daughter. She flew from Israel to be here and offer her own personal farewell to Bessie.

All of you were given your Batya - your daughter of the Lord - your arm bemishpacha for many years. Now she joins your father as they rest side by side.

Sara, Michael and Sharon, Moshe Kalman and Hai you represent all the other grandchildren - those who live and those who study in Israel. Your grandmother Bessie was so proud of all your accomplishments and she enjoyed sharing simchas with you. Being an old retiree, let me tell you - each with your future ahead of you that you have the opportunity to weave the spirit of - the ruah - of Bessie's life into your own. I know how I have come to remember my grandparents whom I loved very much. Surely, each of you will be a bearer, not only of Bessie's memories but a bearer of her massim tovin - her chayim - the righteous even in their death are called living - yes Bessie will always be. Each of you loved her in your own special way and she felt that very profoundly.

I am here today for a few reasons. One, my cousins kindly asked me to officiate. Second, my own personal feelings for Aunt Bessie and third as the representative of the rest of our family - nieces and nephews in particular - those alive and those who have passed on. The other night I had a dream and I was there with Aunt Bessie as God took her unto him. But my real question was how would she get to New Orleans to join Uncle Carl? Standing here today we see that Yankee, with determination, worked all of this out.

But I think that I had that dream because next to my parents and Bubbie and Zaddie, the person I admired most was Aunt Bessie. Initially, as Heschel reminded me when he called last night, Aunt Bessie was truly concerned about each one of her nieces and nephews on the Geffen side and on the Wilensky side. She loved to know what you were doing - if she felt that she could assist you by making a certain connection - she would do it.

Rela, President of the Baltimore Hebrew University, recalls Bessie's activism in this incident. "I'll never forget when she helped Prof. Alice Shalvi picket the chief rabbinate in Jerusalem to support the Agunot, women deserted by their husbands. It was eve of Passover and Aunt Bessie carried a Hebrew sign declaring 'it's harder to change the chief rabbinate then to part the Red Sea'."

Truthfully when you met Aunt Bessie in St. Louis, Minneapolis, Jacksonville, Denver, Carbondale, PA., Camp Judea in North Carolina, Spartanburg, New York, Boston, Chicago, Jerusalem, Atlanta and of course New Orleans, it was a real treat. She was a walking encyclopedia of Jewish geography - hardly ever was there someone whom she did not know - or knew someone who knew them.

Since we were all Zionists, she was the one more so than all the Geffens and spouses who instilled within us a deep love for Eretz Yisrael. She was the one who urged us to take Jewish responsibilities in our communities - she was the one who told us that we should never stop learning - She did not let us off the hook because she knew the source from whence we came and she recognized what we were supposed to accomplish.

She loved to hear about what we were doing with ourselves, our spouses, our children and then our grandchildren. Bessie was the finest repository of the Geffen and Rabinowitz gene pool. She scaled the heights in whatever she did and insured that the results were both productive and a kiddush hashem. Her nephew Michael and niece Diane Wilensky are here today to honor Bessie's memory. They formed a very close bond with her when she and they and their children lived here in New Orleans.

All of you, her New Orleans friends and compatriots will recall what you did together and how you learned from her.

The Haftorah for the Shabbat is taken from Shoftim - Shirat Devorah - the song of Deborah -Deborah is described as a Nevia - which is normally translated as prophet but nevia - can also mean spokeperson. The text says that people came to her for lamishpat - for decisions.

Bessie was our spokesperson - our nevia - touching us with her words - inspiring us with her acts - When we really needed to get advice - we were not afraid to turn to her - She knew how to make decisions - wise decisions - and we respected her for that.

Tehi nishmata tzerura betzror hachayim - may her soul be bound up in the bonds of life eternal - May Batya bat HaRav Tuvia ve Sara Hene rest in peace. AMEN