I was so terribly saddened when my dear friend Hershel passed away. Several years ago he related: “My wife died in September. We were married for 59 years. I survived three heart attacks, but losing Alla was unbearable. I laid my feet down, never intending to use them again. I had given up.
“Then there was a knock on the door and the sound of noisy teenagers behind it. I thought it must be a prank. But it turned out to be a group of lively teen volunteers from the Jewish community. ‘We haven’t seen you in a while,’ they said, with bright smiles on their faces. ‘You’re needed for the Minyan.’ I couldn’t turn them down. They needed me.
From that day on Hershel attended minyan every day of the year, including the most frigid of mornings and through difficult days of treatment when he would go straight to the hospital after prayers.
It’s safe to say the daily minyan kept Hershel alive and Hershel kept our minyan alive.
May the soul of Hersh ben Shlomo rest in peace.
Rabbi Chaim Danzinger
