                          Tzippy Orzy
                       A Mother in Hebron
                         March 2, 1992
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg

       For as long as I have been working at Yeshivat Kiryat Arba, our secretary,
Tziporah Ruth Orzy, was always there.  A young mother and rebbitzen, Tzippy was a source
of stability in the office and a person to whom all could turn, be it the Rosh Yeshiva, or any
one of our 200 young bachurim.  
       When Rabbi Waldman and I had the zchut to visit the pioneers who had taken
residence in the City of David on a Friday morning, Tzippy made us wait until she brought us
a home made cake to sweeten the Shabbat of these Jewish heros.  
       Although barely in her mid thirties, Tzippy was a Hebron veteran who had taken
part in the modern rebirth of this Jewish city.  She married here and gave birth to four
youngsters.  Her heart went out to all her fellow Jews and she was always reminding us when
someone was sick, that he or she needed visitors.  She, herself, poured out her heart in prayer
whenever ill health plagued a member of the community.  Her prayers were almost always
answered.
       Last month Tzippy lost her mother to cancer.  She had been sick for a long time and
finally succumbed to this dread disease.  Then, last week, Tzippy admitted to severe pain and
discomfort which, until now, she had attributed to a difficult pregnancy.  On Thursday she was
brought to the hospital.  By Saturday night she was dead.
       Shock waves resounded throughout Kiryat Arba.  It was not possible!  So young
and vibrant and healthy and then------gone.  Tzippy had cancer and never even knew it.  When
she had gone to the hospital they found her to be in an advanced state of cancer of the liver,
which so abruptly took her life.
       No one had a chance to pray for Tzippy's recovery, for no one knew she was sick! 
The pain she had attributed to her pregnancy must have been excruciating, yet she ignored it
and continued her life until the last moment.  Right before going to the hospital she took the
time to buy a birthday gift for her child.  I am sure she had no idea that she would never
return.
       It was a freezing cold Sunday in Kiryat Arba as the entire town came out to pay
their last respects to our Tzippy.  Rabbi Schraga Orzy, her beloved husband, poured out his
heart with unrestrained emotion at his tragic loss.  His pain affected every one of us and not a
dry eye could be seen in the huge crowd of mourners.  
       Former Chief Rabbi, Shlomo Goren, a friend of the family, eulogized Tzippy and
compared her to Sara Imanu, carrying on the eternal Jewish traditions of this holy city.  The
funeral procession stopped in the middle of Hebron and halted all traffic as Rabbi Moshe
Levinger delivered an impassioned, anguished-filled tribute to a true Jewish mother and
pioneer of Hebron.
       Then, at the Jewish Cemetery, as Tzippy was laid to rest, Rabbi Eliezer Waldman,
Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Kiryat Arba, made an emotional farewell address to our beloved
Tzippy.  
       All hearts were broken as her seven year old son chanted the mourners Kaddish for
his mother.                        Baruch Dayan HaEmet.  