Diary Entry From My Journey #2

Last year I just "happened" to be in America when my dear friend and former talmid of the Yeshiva, Daniel Chernikoff alav hashalom, passed away, so I had the opportunity to be menachem aveilim. I thought I was coming in for a wedding but Hashem wanted more than that. "Better go to a house of mourning than to a feast". Shlomo Hamelech was SOOOO wise.

This year I thought I was going to America to fundraise for the Iyun Hanefesh kollel that we are trying to found. But it just "happened" that I was here for Daniel's first yahrtzeit and attended a very uplifting, moving and poignant gathering in his memory in Brooklyn and was able to tell his family what he meant to me. I have to remember that I have my plans but Hashem is running the show and is showing me constantly that my small vision is infinitely surpassed by His Divine Providence.

One thought that resonated with me was expressed by Rabbi Eliyahu Baruch Shulman. Chazal say that there is a decree that the dead is forgotten after a year. He explained that after a year we must try to forget that he is dead and instead remember that he was ALIVE and what he contributed to our lives and what we can learn from him.

It was inspiring seeing the emunah of his family and particularly the strength of his widow who had her husband taken away after a painfully short marriage of about 2 months.

May Hashem give them simcha and all of us the realization that we are living in this world for a limited amount of time and that every second we have the gift of life we should cherish it.

This weeks Torah on yutorah.org is being sponsored in his memory please go there and listen to a shiur. I would suggest the shiurim of a close friend - but that would be self serving......

:)