Shammai, a nineteen-year-old bachur suffering from a debilitating illness, knew he didn’t have long to live. One day, Shammai told his father, “If I don’t make it, I don’t want anyone to give a hesped at my levayah except my ninth-grade rebbi.” A few weeks passed, and Shammai was weaker. He called his father close and said, “Remember what I said about a hesped. If my rebbi doesn’t understand why I want him to speak, give him this paper. It’s only for him to read.”
Sadly, Shammai passed away. His father went to the rebbi’s house and made the request. As expected, the rebbi wondered, ‘‘Why davka me?” So, Shammai’s father gave him the folded paper. The rebbi opened it and, as he looked at the writing inside, began to smile.
“This brings back such memories!” he said. “Shammai’s class was tough. There was a lot of fighting, and I was at my wits’ end. One day, I gave out twenty sheets of paper, each with the name of a talmid on the top. I told the boys to write down the positive qualities they saw in that boy and what they thought he would become.
“Each boy had a chance to add to each of his classmates’ lists. Then, I gave each boy the sheet with his name on top. The boys discovered the wonderful things their classmates thought about them. The fighting stopped, and the boys became friends. Shammai once told me that his life changed because of that paper.”
When some of Shammai’s classmates came to be menachem avel, they showed Shammai’s father that they, too, kept those sheets folded up in their wallets. A good word really can change everything.
CHOFETZ CHAIM HERITAGE FOUNDATION
