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Rabbi Aaron Chomsky continued to visit the sick in Perth Amboy well past his retirement from Congregation Shaarey Tefiloh in 1992. By lowering its flags to half-mast the week after his death, the city gave back to a leader who never stopped giving to community members.

"The respect that the city showed my dad told me a lot," Chomsky's son, Herschel, said.

Just two weeks after moving to Edison, Chomsky died July 21 at age 83. Besides for his nine years at Shaarey Tefiloh, he led Congregation Shaare Zedek in West New York, three Orthodox synagogues in the Rockaways section of Long Island, and a Jewish nursing home in Richmond, Va.

Chomsky's children described him as a rabbi who struck an ideal balance between giving personal attention to his congregants and keeping spiritual matters such as prayers and Torah reading in order.

"His greatest asset was overall service to the community, as a great practitioner of the twin principles of the relationship bein adam l'makom (between man and God) and bein adam l'chaveiro (between man and his friend)," his son Eli said. "He took his responsibilities very seriously as one who gave to God and to man."

Chomsky is survived by Eli, Herschel, daughters Alizah and Zephyr, daughter-in-law Iris, and grandson Benjamin. He was married to the late Rebbetzin Lilian Chomsky for 56 years.

Herschel said that Chomsky inspired congregants with his unique poetic prayers, but made his greatest impact as a "pastoral type of rabbi" who knew how to treat people with respect in good times and bad times.

With a motto of "once a congregant, always a congregant," Chomsky's leadership had an intergenerational quality, Eli said. During the shiva mourning period, one pair of brothers from the Rockaways visited Edison to reminisce about how Chomsky performed both of their bar mitzvahs, one of their weddings, and their father's funeral.

"Dad really had an ability to touch all generations," Eli said.

Chomsky grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and went on to study at Edison's Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva for high school followed by Yeshiva University for a B.A. in Languages and his rabbinical degree. His congregations in the Rockaways included Kneseth Israel, Temple of Israel, and Anshe Sfard.

Shaarey Tefiloh had a daily minyan and a couple hundred members when Chomsky took over, but now has no rabbi and gets 12 or 13 people for Shabbat morning services as Perth Amboy's Orthodox community is shrinking due to aging as well younger members moving out.

"We are trying to keep the shul going," Herschel, the congregation's gabbai, said.

Alizah said Chomsky "was always on call" at the synagogue even after retiring. He moved to Edison with Alizah and Zephyr about a month ago into a one-floor home because "he needed a minyan and we needed an easier house," Alizah said.

Despite Chomsky's short stay in Edison, Alizah said he managed to leave a lasting impression on the community at Congregation Ohr Torah. He died of a heart attack, but his health was stable when the family moved.

"He was only here for two weeks, but they loved him and gave him so much kavod (respect)," Alizah said. "The whole community was in shock (when he died)."

Besides for serving congregations, Chomsky taught at the Hebrew Institute of Long Island and worked in kashrut for the Orthodox Union. Eli recalled visiting his father in Perth Amboy one weekend and unexpectedly seeing the freezer filled with Haagen-Dazs ice cream cartons, not knowing that his father had just helped grant the company kosher certification for the first time.

Chomsky had a "corny but good" sense of humor, Herschel said. Eli said he always had a Torah-related or personal word for people, and had enough confidence in his congregants to always give sermons on a sophisticated level and never "dumb down the subject."

"He always knew the thing to say and the feeling to transfer it to all of his congregants," Eli said.