By COLlive reporter
A modest farbrengen was held last week in Los Angeles to mark the birthday of the late and beloved Shliach, Rabbi Ariel Rav-Noy obm, assistant director of Chabad Persian Youth, who passed away this year.
It was Tuesday, the 27th of Tammuz, and the occasion was also shared by Rav-Noy’s brother-in-law, Rabbi Dov Muchnik, Director of Chabad of Oxnard in California.
“Exactly 23 years ago today I met Ariel for the first time on our 14th birthday,” Muchnik related in a blog post. They were both campers at the overnight camp Yeshiva Summer Program (YSP) in Morristown, NJ.
“I had planned a “Farbrengen” that night with some of my friends from New York,” Muchnik said. “Ariel, coming from California, didn’t have as many friends in camp and approached me asking if he could join my Fabrengen.”
“Of course, I was more than happy to have him join!” he recalled. “That was the beginning of our long friendship and warm relationship. Little did we each know that 10 years later I would end up marrying his younger sister Racheli.”
From that year on, Dov Muchnik and Ariel Rov-Noy would hold their birthday farbengens together or at least call each other and connect when they were not in the same vicinity.
Muchnick said that this year he faced a challenge. “As you know, Ariel passed away suddenly just 5 months ago. Now what? How can we connect today and celebrate our birthdays together?!”
He came to the realization that “Ariel’s birthday is just as special today as it was last year while his soul was clothed in a physical body!”
Writing to community members and friends, he wrote: “Jewish faith teaches us that a soul never dies. In fact it is present in this world in a sense even more so than during one’s physical lifetime. The challenge, of course, is for us down here to relate and connect with the soul of the departed. It is much easier to talk to someone face to face than to connect only on a spiritual plane…
“Well, that is precisely the birthday challenge. To connect to our own soul on a higher and deeper level than the year that past!”
He concluded: “Ariel, thank you for reminding me today of what is really important in life; G-dliness, soul, spirituality, love, respect, family and friends. I will now need to work even harder to be like you, a pure soul, yet remain clothed in a body for as long as G-d wishes so that I can continue to accomplish more in this world!”
A mikvah is currently being built in memory of Rabbi Ariel Rov-Noy. To partake, visit jewishhumboldt.com
Bs”d Um. Actually, three birthdays. Mine too. We made the Farbrengen on the 28th of Tammuz (end of 27th). 28th is my Yom Huledes. Ever since we were children Ariel and I enjoyed the fact that our birthdays are one day apart (albeit, four years). Strange that Ariel’s birth is one of my first memories. What a beautiful baby. Later on with that dark dark black hair; he used to think he was a girls till he had his first haircut :). I remember him saying tha… His two younger daughters look just like he did. May his memory ve… Read more »
How touching, how inspiring….
Please give to the mikva fund!! They are currently under escrow, and desperately need another $30,000 left to make Ariel’s mikva be a reality and bring many jewish neshamos into this world in a hailige way! It will be a big nechama for Rabbi Ariel’s family to have this mikva built in his memory. Moshiach Now!