Some qualities of a human being can only be captured by resorting to Yiddish. For Senator Joe Lieberman, who died much too young at age 82, the word is “edel.” Leo Rosten’s hilarious dictionary-like classic, The Joys of Yiddish, defines it as “gentle, sensitive, refined,” or “shy, modest, humble.” It rhymes with “cradle.” You don’t get to be a U.S. senator by being shy, but the rest all fits. The entry for the word is lacking Rosten’s usual jokes or other humorous remarks. Instead, he states simply and seriously, “‘He is edel’ is a compliment of the highest order.”
That was Joe Lieberman. We spent a week together in 2010 as I interviewed him about the Jewish Sabbath and his observance of it for a book we wrote, The Gift of Rest. I stayed in a hotel in Georgetown and each morning went to the home nearby where Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, lived when not in Connecticut. We all had lunch and dinner together. At the end of the week we traveled to their Connecticut apartment to spent the Sabbath — Shabbat — together.
When I got back to Seattle I drafted each chapter, in his voice and trying to convey his personality, for him to review and edit. He did so aggressively. One chapter he returned to me with the comment, “Not acceptable.” Ouch.
From these intensive conversations, I had several takeaways. He was a very sweet man — or better, he was edel. He and Hadassah obviously adored each other. He was humble and somehow — strange word to apply to a politician — wholesome. I was in the room with him on June 1 when his erstwhile running mate, Al Gore, called to say that he and Tipper (Mrs. Gore) were separating. Joe and Hadassah were utterly shocked. There’s no faking that.
He loved Judaism, and Shabbat in particular. Orthodox Jews don’t cook on the Sabbath, including brewing coffee. I have the honor of having introduced Senator Lieberman to Via, the Starbucks instant coffee that comes in a little packet. He marveled at and immediately embraced this step up on Shabbat from the usual Folgers instant.
We had attended the same synagogue, Georgetown Synagogue, where we both knew and admired its prominent spiritual leader, Rabbi Barry Freundel. Our book cites Rabbi Freundel’s teachings on how to merge Sabbath observance with the life of political leader who came very close to being the first Jewish vice president. Joe and I were shocked and angry when Freundel (who also oversaw my conversion to Orthodox Judaism) was arrested and imprisoned for video-recording women, unclothed, in the ritual bath, or mikveh.
There was something innocent in Lieberman, and earnest. In the book, he extols the institution of the Shabbat nap and he saw no reason to withhold an intimate reference. “Incidentally,” he told me, “it is another opportunity for married couples to enjoy the blessing of being together. For further details I refer you to ‘Afternoon Delight,’ a wonderful song from my youth written by Bill Danoff and performed by the Starland Vocal Band.” My daughter in college in New York would often see him at the synagogue he later attended in Riverdale. She liked to watch him across the divider between the men’s and women’s sections. She said, “He was so cute.” Yep.
His purpose in conceiving the book was to share the Sabbath with Christians and others. And along with some fellow Jewish conservatives, including Michael Medved and Dennis Prager, he did more than a little to do so.
Finally, yes, party labels (or No Labels, Lieberman’s third-party attempt) aside, Joe was a conservative, as his long association with Bill Buckley hints. That was the first thing I told people after a week of talking with him. It came out in numerous ways. And it was in line with this that he wanted to help other people, not just Jews, recover the ancient blessing of Shabbat. May his family find comfort among the many mourners of this edel man.
David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.