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ViewMate Posting VM 94457

Submitted by Sheila Judith Cantor

Information Picture Question
Category: Translation - Tombstone
Approval Date: 7/18/2021 12:23 PM
Family Surname: Liberman
Country: Poland
Town: Stawisk?
Date of Image: 1910 		Click the picture to enlarge

 Translation of the Hebrew would be very much appreciated.
Many thanks

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On  Response 
7/18/2021 2:12 PM The text here is quite challenging to read, partly because the writing on the reverse side of this clipping shows through. (If you have the original, it might be helpful to make another copy, this time placing a dark piece of paper behind it; this will prevent the text and images on the reverse from showing through).

There are also some Aramaic words included in what is mostly Hebrew.

==================================================

The caption beneath the photo reads:

"Mindel Lieberman, may she rest in peace. The mother of Shifra and Tzvi Lieberman".

The grave that she is standing next to is that of a man, possibly her husband's.

It is strange to say, but it is hard to find the name of the deceased on this stone!

There are many lines of praise lauding this man, who was apparently a righteous man, a great scholar, and a teacher. These lines are followed by "the rabbi" in larger letters (fourth line from the bottom). Then there is a large blank area, followed by "May the memory of the righteous be a blessing; his soul is in Eden."

This is followed by "He passed away with a good name [reputation] on the eve of the Holy Sabbath on the ___ of Marcheshvan 5671. May his soul be bound up in the bond of life.

====================================================
The large blank area between "the rabbi" and "May the memory of the righteous be a blessing" is where his name should presumably have been engraved. Perhaps the name was not engraved into the stone, but was attached with metal letters which later disappeared?

Looking hard at the many lines of smaller text, the letters on the 7th line are slightly larger than the rest, and MAY incorporate his name and that of his father, although neither of these names are common, and they are simply inserted into the text. If so, then the name of the deceased would have be URIN and his father's name would have been ABA or AVHAN.

Do you have the rest of the page from which this clipping was taken? It might give additional details about the deceased and clear up this mystery.

The date of death is also unclear, as the exact date in the month of Marcheshvan is illegible. The month of Marcheshvan [this month also has the shorter name of Cheshvan] of the year 5671 began on November 2nd, 1910, and ended on December 1st. During this time, there were four "Sabbath Eves", in other words Fridays, which began at sunset on Thursday night and ended at sunset on Friday. Thus, the date of death was among the following:
November 3rd or 4th
November 10th or 11th
November 17th or 18th
November 24th or 25th.

=====================================================
If you can get a clearer image or -- better yet -- an accompanying article on that page -- then I might be able to clarify the details further.
7/19/2021 8:32 AM The name is in darker letters - and in an acrostic too.
I think there may an acrostic in the line's ends as well. The first lines:
יקר רוח
הולך תמים
והצנע לכם עם
דלה דלה ממעיינות
העמיד

That creates Yehuda.
7/19/2021 11:40 AM Line 7 contains further words of praise, not the name. It's an expression from the talmud
בר אורין (pronounced bar oryan) is literally "a son of the Torah" - it means he was knowlegeable in it. And the other part בר אבהן refers to his having a respected ancestry.

Based on lines 6-7-8 I think his second name was Tzvi
7/19/2021 11:56 AM sorry for my slip in response 2, the correct text for the beginning of the third Hebrew line is
והצנע לכת עם
7/21/2021 1:13 PM This is the first helper again.

Based on the other helpers, whose eyes are apparently younger than mine, I agree that the first letters of the top 8 lines are an acrostic, and that his Hebrew name was likely to have been YEHUDAH TZVI.

However, his father's name is still missing, and it still seems to me that the name might have been in the form of metal letters that were attached to the stone (and either fell off or were stolen for their value?).

And thank you to the helper who explained that the text that I thought might be his name (although I did doubt that this was the case) was an expression that means that the deceased was scholarly and of important ancestry. I am always happy to learn something new.

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