“Jack’s Gemorrah”
The following letter was written by
David Feder and the daf yomi
chaburah of
Congregation
Eitz Chaim of Dogwood Park-
Dear fellow
members,
Our
shul suffered a great loss last week with the passing of Jack Reichman olov hasholom. He was a regular participant of our daily shacharis minyan. Every shabbos he would come with his boys to all the minyanim. He
volunteered his services and helped out with our youth program. He will be
missed by everyone in many different ways. We heard at the funeral how for the
last year and a half, Jack became involved in the daf yomi
program. He purchased an ipod ,
and he would listen to shiurim with it on the train.
I recall fondly seeing Jack once in shul on a Sunday morning with his cell
phone and ipod clipped side by side to his belt, and
the earpieces dangling from his front shirt pocket, as he tried to maneuver the
straps of his teffilin shel
rosh over the cord. Recently, when he got sick, he
misplaced his ipod and was very upset. He told me
that he was lost without it. He really enjoyed listening to the daf on it. So
when he gave up hope of finding it, he purchased an mp3 player and downloaded
the daf yomi shiurim from
the computer. There was no stopping him. Of course, most of all, Jack was a
part of our chaburah, our group of men who learn
together each and every day of the week. As our rabbi has said many times, we
not only learn together, but we form a friendship as a group. You could call us
a club, or a team. Every morning we meet early in the morning, sometimes as
early as 5:40am while our families are still asleep at home. As a group, we
feel united in our mission learning the daf day after day, looking towards the siyum many years from now, when we will celebrate together
the completion of shas.
This past shabbos, Rabbi Menchel spoke of
the terrible loss that we feel as a group. He quoted the gemorah
which says that if one of the chaburah dies, it has
an effect on the entire gathering. Michael Soycher,
our daf yomi organizer also expressed a similair feeling last week when he said to me “It doesn’t
feel right. Jack started rosh hashana(our current maseches) with us, but he’s not going to finish with us.”
Jack used the daf yomi size art scroll gemorah.
This is smaller than the regular large edition. He would take it with him on
the train to work, or on the plane when he flew for business. Recently he
complained to me that it was heavy to be carrying all around. He asked me if I
could order for him a subscription to the new Israeli softcover
daf yomi gemorahs , known as the “shas lublin” gemorahs. Larry Siegel,
another member of our chaburah introduced them to us
last year, and with the exception of one or two of us, we all use either the
art scroll or the shas lublin gemorahs. The
difference is that the art scroll uses an English translation, while the shas lublin
uses a Hebrew one. Jack gave me a check for a year’s subscription, which
entitled him to 12 issues, one gemorah per month. I
held onto his check, since I was receiving a few more, and they are sent to
Israel. Just one week before Jack entered the hospital,
on erev shabbos in shul at kabbolas shabbos I gave Jack his gemorah. He was so excited. He smiled at me and thanked me.
This week at the shiva house, I told Roz and the boys that I had not mailed
the checks yet to Israel and that I would return Jack’s check to them. Roz told
me to deposit it. I told her that if Jack is not here to use the gemorahs, then I cannot send it in. We left it alone.
But all day I was bothered by this. Somehow it did not seem right that I had
this check from Jack and he was part of our group, and now we just move on
without him. And then we came up with a solution. I agreed with Roz that we
will send the check to Israel to be deposited. We will receive a gemorah every month for Jack Reichman for the next ll months( the exact amount of
time that his sons will be saying kaddish for him). I
will write Jack’s name on the gemorah. We learn daf
every day in
the shul around two large tables. There are always extra seats for anyone who
wishes to join us, either to visit, or as a regular participant. However, there
is never an extra gemorah on the table since everyone
brings their own. Next week, on Wednesday when we will I’’yh
begin a new maseches, for the first time there will
be an extra gemorah on the table. It will be Jack’s!
Inside will be his Hebrew name, “yaakov zeev ben tzvi.”
Anyone and everyone is invited to come sit at our
table and learn from Jack’s gemorah, and listen as
our maggid shiur, Rabbi Schwalb teaches us. If more than one person comes and there
is a dispute over who will use Jack’s gemorah, then
it will be in his merit, that just as the rocks argued over who Yaakov aveinu will rest his head, so too many will argue who will
use our Yaakov’s gemorah.
May
the learning done in Jack’s memory serve as a zechus
for his family and all of us, his friends who miss him so dearly.
Signed: David Feder and the daf yomi
chaburah.
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