Yesterday, as I am sure by now you all know, a minister of Israel died of a rare blood disease. Uri Orbach of Habayit Hayehudi.
I had no personal connection to him, and will not eulogize him, but I would like to point out one thing.
Since his death, actually even before it as he was in the hospital and asking people to pray for him but much more so after death, it has come to light how well-liked he was, how good of a person he was.
What I find impressive is not that he was a good person, BH we have plenty of those. Not even that he was a good person in the Knesset - we have some of those as well.
He was just a good person. He was a mentsch. What impressed me is how everybody, from right to left, from religious to not religious to anti-religious, from every type of news media on the spectrum in both print media and on the airwaves, they all talk about how good he was, how much of a mentsch, how despite their differences in ideology and belief he gave everyone respect, had a smile, a kind word, a witty comment, a way to make them smile and laugh.
Bar none.
I have not seen any news media, and I explicitly heard from reps all the way to Meretz and Labor, and on the far right, and from the haredim, and everyone else, how they felt connected to him, how good he was.
Someone who can make such a strong impression - not by being aggressive or pushy or looking for ways to "lick up" to others, but just by being nice and respectful.. we need more people like that.
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