Once after eating lunch in their small room he would give a Torah class in the room which got crowded with his students. When going into her room she fell down and broke her pelvis. A grandson came and lifted her onto her bed. At 3:00 there was a class that the rabbi gave and Tamar lied quietly in the room.
An hour and a half later another grandson saw she was in pain and they took her to the hospital for x rays. They discovered she had a broken pelvis and asked her: “It was an hour and a half, weren’t you in pain?” The Rebbetzin answered: “Sure I was in pain but the rabbi was about to give a class and would be disturbed if he knew I was in pain. So I held it in for the duration of the class so as not to disturb.”
As a young woman Tamar lived in Belgium. Her ambition was to marry a scholar. She waited many years until she found her suitable husband, Rabbi Shteinman when she was 36 years old. The war came and destroyed most of world Jewry and they both ended up in Switzerland. Rabbi Shteinman was 30 and she was, as we said 36 but she knew he was worth the wait. They together created a home of Torah, a Torah empire raising children children that married Torah leaders.
Rabbi Shteinman used to tell over her good deeds. She would go with a friend door to door to raise funds for widows and other needy people. She had a whole list of people to raise money for on a steady basis. On her death bed she was mumbling and it wasn’t clear what she was saying. But when they listened closely they heard that she was actually instructing them with her last hardly audible words to make sure this widow gets this and that one gets that and that’s how she passed away with the worries of other on her lips.
Rabbi Shteinman told those present at her deathbed to immediately make sure those people she mentioned with her last words got assistance according to her instructions.
When Rabbi Shteinman’s reputation grew and people from all over the world visited them in their small home she stayed in her room and wouldn’t leave it because she felt it wasn’t modest.
They had a small home but they were giant people; giants in Torah and giants in Kindness. Now Rabbi Shteinman is united with his wife in heaven.
May their memories be blessed.
