SARASOTA – Just as the sun went down symbolizing the start of Rosh Hashanah, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death sent shockwaves sent through the nation.
“There’s a teaching that someone who dies on the sabbath is a righteous person, a Tzaddik, so in Justice Ginsburg’s case we’d call her a Tzidkanit, the female righteous person,” Rabbi Michael Shefrin of Temple Emanu-El said.
That particular Sabbath marked the start of a new year on the Jewish calendar, which Shefrin says makes Ginsburg’s death even more significant.
“There’s a connection to the heavens and elevations of spirit that happens on the Sabbath that’s automatically there, and even more so on Rosh Hashanah,” Shefrin said.
“There’s a tradition if someone is destined to die during that year, that if it is at the very last moment, it shows that G-d sort of wanted to put off that destiny, if you will, as much as possible, to make sure we had their goodness and their insight and compassion to enjoy in our world for as long as possible,” Rabbi Elaine Glickman of Temple Emanu-El said.
Glickman says simply put, it marks the passing of someone very special.
“..someone who G-d recognized is needed in this world,” Glickman said.
Jewish tradition encourages burial as soon as possible, but Justice Ginsburg lying in repose at the Supreme Court, and in state at the U.S. Capitol.
“If she were a most traditional Jew, then none of that would happen,” Glickman said.
But we know the ‘Notorious R.B.G’ was anything but traditional.
“On her wall, famously in her office it says, ‘Tzedek, tzedek tirdof,'” Shefrin said.
It translates, “Justice, justice you shall pursue.”
