Rebbetzin Rochel Rakow faced tragedy with a siddur in her hands and song on her lips

There’s a beautiful picture of Rebbetzin Rochel Rakow taken on her final visit to Eretz Yisrael, in May 2019. She's seated serenely in her wheelchair, in a Meah Shearim store, its walls lined with leather siddurim.In her hand is a gigantic bag of freshly popped popcorn. Together with a six-year-old grandchild, the nonagenarian great-grandmother is choosing a gift. The most precious gift ever — a siddur. The child in the picture is named Hindy, after the Rebbetzin’s sister, who survived the Holocaust alongside her, and the gift they’re selecting together is the indispensable item that Rebbetzin Rakow always had within arm’s reach, during the Holocaust years — a siddur, her connection to tefillah; it was this that she passed on to her family. Rebbetzin Rakow was the devoted wife of Rav Bentzion Rakow, an illustrious talmid chacham and founding rosh yeshivah of Yeshivas Chayei Olam in London, where he was venerated by hundreds of talmidim. She loved Torah and talmidei chachamim, treating her husband like a king, and happy to live in utter simplicity to enable him to grow in Torah and teach it. Together they raised a family of sons who became outstanding marbitzei Torah and daughters who married roshei yeshivah. After Rav Bentzion passed away at only 60 years of age, the Rebbetzin remained alone, but with her siddur by her side, she never felt that way.

“If you have a Siddur...”

“Az men hot a siddur, hot men alles — if you have a siddur, you have everything,” she often said. Even in Auschwitz, she had somehow managed to complete one Shemoneh Esreh a day. In her later years, she moved into an assisted living facility, where she took part happily in activities, but only after she’d completed her davening and daily Tehillim.
“Mummy and her siddur were inseparable,” says her youngest daughter, Noami Levy, who cared for the rebbetzin as she aged. “A few years ago, we had a Chanukah party for the Rakow daughters, granddaughters, and great granddaughters. We played a game where each player had two pieces of paper, each with a name or item written on it, and with each round of the game, had to pass on the one that was least important to them. Mummy was left with two papers. One said ‘SIDDUR’ and the other said ‘NOAMI’(me!). She looked at the papers, then at me, said ‘Sorry!’ and pushed the paper with ‘NOAMI’ written on it to the center pile. Then she hugged the paper that said ‘SIDDUR’ to her chest.”
She would plead with the Ribbono shel Olam to help all of His children — “and meiner kinder avadde — and my children among them, of course,” — and never tired of bentshing them all.
The Rakow daughters, today all rebbetzins themselves, laugh as they recall their teen years, when the Rebbetzin took them sales shopping at London’s department stores. Mrs. Suri Cohen recalls: “Mummy had to daven Shacharis first, of course. We tiptoed over and peeped into her siddur to check where she was up to, because Mummy’s davening went on and on. And then when we finally did board the Underground, Mummy had her Tehillim or her siddur and would continue davening. I was once a little embarrassed of her, and I said ‘Oh, Mummy, in front of everyone?’ She replied ‘They can go with all their crazy colored hair and funny clothes and I should be embarrassed of my siddur?’” Her erlichkeit and connection to Hashem were so real and unpretentious, drawing others to her. The last time Noami took her mother to Eretz Yisrael, she spent a long time at Kever Rochel, as she always did. When Noami started to push Rebbetzin Rakow’s wheelchair to the exit, one woman came over to ask for a brachah, then another, and more and more. As they left the building, men approached her too, and she blessed each one. Even after they entered their taxi, people were knocking on the window for her brachah. “What was all that about?” Noami asked her mother after the car pulled out. “Ich veis nisht, mistamah veil ich bin ein alteh Yidene — I don’t know, probably because I’m an old woman,” was her simple answer.