FROM THE ENDS OF THE SKIES

It began in the heavens, continued on earth – physical and spiritual, and the journey isn’t over yet. Or as it says in D’varim 30:4-9, “If your castaways will be at the ends of the skies, from there Hashem will gather you and from there He will take you. And Hashem will bring you to the land that your ancestors inherited … and you will return and listen to the voice of Hashem and do all His mitzvos.”

By Ariella Dashif

Ruth on her wedding day | Ruth’s father dressed in his pilot’s uniformFrom when he was a little child, Bernard Rose was drawn to anything connected with conquering the skies, flight, jet travel, helicopters and aeronautics. At a relatively young age, he enlisted in the British Air Force and was trained as a pilot. When WWII broke out, he was assigned as a gunner, which was a dangerous assignment, as the gunners would fire upon enemy aircraft from an open position in the pilot’s cockpit.

As a result of the war and the heavy bombing of London from German enemy aircraft, the children of the city, including a young Jewish girl named Jean, were sent to quieter and protected areas in the outlying cities.

The war ended and Jean returned to London, Bernard was released from his military duties, and in the ensuing years the two met and married. Bernard became a flight engineer, and due to his experience and talents became an internationally sought after engineer. He then began traveling to all sorts of remote areas where oil wells had been discovered, but could not be reached overland due to the difficult terrain. Bernard worked at setting up helicopter landing sites, since these were the only means of transportation that could reach those wells.

Jean joined Bernard in all of his travels, and in New Guinea, an island north of Australia, their firstborn son Alan was born. It was in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, where their second child, a daughter named Ruth, was born.

The children were growing up, and their parents realized the need to settle in a single place in order for the children to live normal and stable lives. The father continued on his travels, and would be gone from home for months at a time, while Jean and the children would remain behind in England.

One day, Bernard was offered a steady position for a two year period in Australia, and the Roses decided to move to Australia. The children were happy that they would be able to spend more time with their father, and in general, the climate on that small continent is far warmer and more pleasant.

That is how they found themselves in Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. In the house that they rented, there was a piano which drew in their daughter Ruth, and her love for music grew from day to day.

“I would sit at the piano, tapping the keys and improvising, and slowly but surely I taught myself to play. When my parents realized that I have a musical ear for the piano, they decided to send me for lessons with an expert teacher. I learned to play, and I even began to compose,” recalls Ruth, who is now Ruth Dales from the Chabad community in Rechovot, a singer-composer, and who is the mother to a fully Chassidic family. Her story of return to her roots begins in the skies and comes down to land, the Holy Land, interwoven with the song of her soul.

THE FAMILY VEHICLE: AN AIRPLANE

Ruth shows me some old and faded photos from which seem to waft a smell of the middle years of the previous century. In the pictures you can see her father dressed in his pilot’s uniform that is padded from head to toe, in order to endure the cold and wind of the open cockpit in the battle for the skies; a picture from her parents’ wedding; Ruth as an infant in her mother’s arms, with her brother standing next to them; and another with Ruth as a three year old playing in the sand on a beach. The season is summer, but Ruth is dressed in a warm sweater due the English weather.

Then there is the surprise picture: the entire family of father, mother, older brother at age 11, Ruth at age 8 and the youngest brother, standing alongside the family mode of transportation, being none other than a light aircraft. Yes, you read that correctly. When the family lived in Australia, the father got hold of an airplane that was no longer operational, fixed it and spruced it up, and made it his personal vehicle. At times, the family used it for their personal transportation, such as to visit some of the islands near Australia for vacation. No doubt, it is an amazing photo, since even today there are very few people (usually the wealthy) who maintain their own personal aircraft.

Although the original plan had been to stay in Australia only until the conclusion of the two year contract, and all of their extended family lived in England, her parents decided to remain in Australia.

In Australia, life took on a more stable aspect than it had in the past. The children saw their father more frequently and attended the local public school. Life became a pleasant routine, until that tragic day, five years after the move, when Ruth’s father passed away from a sudden heart attack. Father, strong and smart, was no longer there with them.

TO THE LAND OF YOUR FOREFATHERS

Life for Ruth was not so easy. She was still a young girl, delicate, shy, and Jewish. She did not feel comfortable with the shallow and extroverted lifestyle which characterized the gentile culture all around her. For her, life was more about simplicity, heart, depth and sensitivity, things which her environment could not provide. Accordingly, she had very few friends, and unsurprisingly, her closest and pretty much only friend, was a Jewish girl from another school who was two years older.

Following in the footsteps of her older brother, Ruth joined the Jewish-Zionist-Socialist youth movement “HaBanim” (in Eretz Yisroel this movement goes by the name of HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed – Working and Studying Youth). The activities that the movement provided did provide some fulfillment for Ruth’s natural thirst for something loftier and idealistic. There they talked, sang, danced, lived with Eretz Yisroel, and encouraged the members to ultimately settle there. One of the tools to encourage the move was a trip that included living and working on a kibbutz and touring the land. The first to take the trip was the older brother, who returned filled with heady experiences and excitement.

His trip pushed Ruth to join such a trip too, and she arrived in Eretz Yisroel at age 18. The feeling was a very uplifting one. Ruth immediately felt the love and warmth that she had always yearned for. She felt that she was getting nourishment and strength and that she was returning to her natural home, Eretz Yisroel.

“ALL OF HIS COMMANDMENTS”

Although Ruth felt a great love for Eretz Yisroel, she did not feel comfortable on the kibbutz. The jobs that were given to her were in the kitchen and the laundromat, and Ruth felt that peeling potatoes and folding clothes were things that she could well have done in Australia, and that this was not the reason for which she had come to Eretz Yisroel. The tours were few and far between and basically “not worth it.” To make matters worse, the kibbutz members did not bother to forge a connection with their guests and be pleasant towards them. In fact, they related to them with a certain superiority and coldness.

Ruth decided to leave the kibbutz and go to Yerushalayim on her own.

She toured the magical city with an Israeli friend that she had recently met, and as they were riding a bus she explained to the girl in her broken Hebrew that she had come to Eretz Yisroel from Australia. Suddenly, another girl sitting in the row in front of them turned to her and asked in English, “Are you from Australia?” Ruth answered in the affirmative with a smile, since this was a pleasant surprise.

“Would you like to meet other girls from Australia,” asked the stranger. Ruth was surprised, “Other girls from Australia here in Jerusalem?” Since she had no other plans she accepted the invitation happily, and the other girl smilingly handed her a note with a time, date and place, and said, “Come to this place and I am sure you will enjoy it.”

The girl and her refined conduct, her sweetness and forthrightness, touched Ruth and so she showed up at the time and place written on the note that she had saved. The date was a Shabbos, the place was the Ohr Sameiach seminary for female baalei t’shuva in the Geula neighborhood, and the event was a Shabbos meal. It turns out that Rochel, the girl from the bus, was the counselor for the group.

“After the meal we went to a Torah class of Rabbi Bulman, z”l. I felt some antagonism toward the religious portion of the program, but I stayed,” Ruth recalls. “I didn’t understand a lot of what was said, as the rav included expressions in Hebrew, and Jewish references with which I was unfamiliar, but the heart responded. I felt how my heart was being warmed, and a pleasant and unfamiliar warmth began to spread inside me. For me, it was a sort of G-dly revelation, though I did not understand what it was and what was happening to me.

“The class ended too late to return to where I was staying, so I slept overnight in the seminary. In the morning, I joined the other girls as we went by foot to the Kosel HaMaaravi, an hour’s walk, accompanied by the pleasant winter sunshine. We talked on the way, and the girls pleaded with me to stay and learn with them in the seminary. They told me how good it was for them and that I really had to experience it even if only for a short time.

“Oh, no! I thought to myself, here is another strange cult that wants me to join. In the past, I had encountered in various places weird groups of people who devoted their lives to one form of idol worship or another, and they always spoke excitedly about how they had ‘discovered the light,’ and how ‘I absolutely must join them!’”

However, these girls seemed different. They had not surrendered their humanity, their ability to choose their own paths in life and their individuality. There was no sense of oppressiveness, they laughed and fooled around, and the atmosphere around them was a healthy and pleasant one.

Ruth decided to come for classes on Sunday. She had no intention of remaining there, but she wanted to see a bit of what it was all about.

One of the classes that she attended was a class for beginners. The rabbi asked the girls, “Who can tell me what it means to be a Jewess? What exactly is being a Jew about?” Each one gave a different answer; perhaps it is a racial thing? But no, it is possible to convert to Judaism. Perhaps it is just a feeling of being connected to the destiny of the Jewish people? Perhaps it is identifying with the idea that there is a moral code? These and other answers were suggested, but it was clear that the girls were having a difficult time defining who and what they are, inherently.

This question awakened in her a desire to know who she is and what she is. The rabbi gave an overview of the history of the Jews starting with Avrohom Avinu, and explained that a Jew is a member of the Chosen People, who has a purpose, to serve the Creator and to bring justice and righteousness to himself and the entire world. This insight filled Ruth’s heart with a feeling of pride, dignity and love. She felt that it was a wonderful gift to be a Jewess, an amazing and uplifting privilege. “I remained there to study, and each class provided me with new and refreshing understanding.”

A NEW LAYER OF DEPTH

Months passed, and Ruth, who had already taken on full observance, decided that the time had come to return to Australia in order to study for a profession and prepare for the building of a Jewish home. In Eretz Yisroel, there were various groups and organization that were working to bring Jews back to observance, but in the Diaspora there was only Lubavitch.

Ruth joined up with a group of newly observant girls in Australia, but she felt uncomfortable about joining any activities associated with Chabad. This was because when she was in Yerushalayim, there was a family that would host her for Shabbos meals, and they warned her repeatedly that under no circumstances was she to have any contact with the Chabad Lubavitch movement. In the end, she described her inner conflict to a Litvishe rav that she knew, and he calmed her concerns, telling her, “Every stream has its pros and cons. Do what your heart tells you.” That is how Ruth began attending classes in Chassidus.

The new learning provided her with something that she had long felt was lacking for her, greater depth, greater sensitivity, greater refinement. After some time she decided to return to Eretz Yisroel and join the studies at Machon Alte in Tzfas. After about a year, she met her husband, Adam Dales, and became Ruth Dales. Together they built a pleasant Chassidic home, and bore and raised nine sons and two daughters, and married them off, meriting the blessing of seeing future generations being born.

MUSICAL FARBRENGENS

Her musical career as a singer and composer began in Machon Alte, where she would sing and play at various farbrengens with the encouragement of Mrs. Rochel Hendel. Later, she made appearances at the high school and seminary in Tzfas.

After the wedding, the young couple settled in Rechovot, and the matter of singing and performing was put to the side in favor of raising the children.

About ten years ago, when the house began to empty a bit during the day and she had more time, Ruth returned to her old love. She studied voice development with various teachers, and decided to produce a recording of songs that she had written and composed.

She saved up money to produce the disk over a period of a few years, with the help and encouragement of her mother, and as soon as she had enough money to record one song she would do it immediately. The entire process took about ten years.

What is the source of your inspiration?

“I write songs in order to encourage myself, to strengthen myself in certain areas and to express myself in songs with positive energy. For example, the song about the singing of the Levites in the Beis HaMikdash or the song of thanks to my mother are songs that I composed to express things that mean a lot to me. The song about a Jewish child I wrote before the birth of my seventh child, because I was struggling with the challenge.

“I have many songs, many of which I did not record on the disk, which I wrote to strengthen myself in the face of challenges and to overcome them. The song ‘You Can Do It,’ helped me overcome my phobia of appearing before an audience and the song “The Rebbe Sent Me,” helped me overcome my shyness when I go on mivtzaim. By the way, this song was inspired by Rochel Rothman, that counselor from Ohr Sameiach,” Ruth says with a smile. “This song is based on a number of mivtzaim stories that served as lessons for me on the issue.”

There is another song worthy of mention and that is the “Tznius Song,” the only song that she wrote in Hebrew, and which has a special place in her heart. “This is a song of thanksgiving to Hashem for the commandment to be modest, which allows the inner aspect to be revealed while the externals are covered, and thus the neshama can truly express itself.”

Ruth appears before a variety of audiences with her personal story and her special songs, with the program tailored for each audience.

What are the responses?

“Truly amazing. Women approach me after the events, thanking me and telling me how it moved them to tears, and inspired them in one way or another. Many times, when I opened the Igros Kodesh, the Rebbe wrote there about farbrengens, so I always try to turn every show into a farbrengen so that every woman and girl should make good resolutions.”

Actually, interviewing Ruth is a “farbrengen experience,” hearing how Hashem brought her from the ends of the heavens, physically and spiritually, and brought her to “the land that your forefathers inherited.” May we go from personal redemption to Complete Redemption very soon.