I Will Always Remember
Shaya was a brother to me and I am deeply saddened and distressed by his loss. When the news was relayed to me, it brought back the trauma that I experienced when my father passed away. He and I went to school together and I have known him since I was 9 yrs old. So much of my life was intertwined with him. There wasn’t a week that went by where he did not call me or email me if I had a place to be for shabbos. As I think about my interactions with him, I only now begin to remember all the things we did together, so many things, from the important to the mundane. I can’t even begin to list them. We learned together at night as teenagers. We played sports together. We went home on the subway from yeshiva every night in high school. We studied for the regents together. We visited my chronically sick uncle in the hospital on shabbos and I would daven in his fathers shul. I was at his bar mitzvah and he was at mine. He was a “shtarker” from way back and we always felt that if he was nearby, we going to be fine. One time when going home from school at night an anti Semite raised his hand to hit one of us; he was behind him and smacked his hand down. He was always the best athlete in the class or even school and he enjoyed the respect and envy of everyone but he was also a masmid and a Talmud Chochom. He always had 2 to 3 seforim opened on the table when he was davening. The more I reminisce the more I remember. It is basically a book about a large portion of my life as much as it is about him. I will alway always miss him and my life is emptier now.
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