Dr. Nachman Schorr z"l

5 Towns Jewish Times


There are no words to describe the loss and pain that the Far Rockaway Torah community is experiencing now, following the petirah of Dr. Nachman Schorr, zt’l, at age 60.

Tehillim and tefillos were said in Jewish communities throughout the world after Dr. Schorr was hospitalized in mid-September in critical condition, suffering from COVID-19. It was uncanny how many people were davening for him. Yeshivos dedicated entire days of learning in his z’chus. This was a source of nachas to his eishes chayil and to his children.

Dr. Schorr was an optometrist who served the whole community. His chesed was extraordinary — refusing to take payment from the needy and doing it in a way in which they retained their dignity. He was a ba’al tzedakah and a remarkable anav. He had an international clientele. People from Eretz Yisrael trusted him so much that they went to him for their glasses.

Perhaps most significantly, he served as a shining example of what a ba’al ha’bas can be and can accomplish. Dr. Schorr went through Shas b’iyun at great depth, several times. He learned a morning seder every day and held his business hours only in the afternoons and evenings. His accomplishments in learning were remarkable — passing the Dirshu test on Shas with flying colors every month and donating all of that money to a needy family in Eretz Yisrael. He was a paragon of middos. He delivered a daf yomi shiur in the Agudah of West Lawrence shul and lived Torah. Everything he did was through the prism of Torah and Shas.

He built an extraordinary family as well. His children are role models of Torah, chesed, and avodas Hashem.

I transcribed the hesped delivered by Rabbi Moshe Brown for Dr. Nachman Schorr, z’l, as follows:

“We’re here to be maspid and give the kavod acharon to Reb Nachman ben Reb Moshe Halevi. I can’t believe that we’re here; the whole experience seems so surreal. It seems like [he was] just saying the shiurim for us in Maseches Eiruvin. He didn’t feel well. Then I had to take over. It didn’t even dawn on us that we would have to say goodbye. Not only one of our own crown jewels in our own tzibbur — he was one of the crown jewels in the entire community.

“Chazal (Sanhedrin 88b) tell us, ‘Eizehu ben olam ha’bah? Someone who is a modest person’ is a humble person, very unpretentious, doesn’t make a big deal out of himself. Every second that he has, he doesn’t squander it. He maximizes the opportunity to learn Torah.

“They look to who they can find who meets this description. If he would be here, if he were able to respond to us, he would say, ‘Why do you make such a big deal about me?’

“Nachman was an inspiration. An inspiration to me, personally. He’s an inspiration to the younger generation. People who were younger than him knew who he was. They would come in and they would see a person shakuah in Talmud Torah who organized his life to be able to learn half a day, and he was an oleh becoming a talmid chacham, building upon a talmid chacham shaft.

“One time after another, it was clear that the Nachman who was here now was not the Nachman of a year ago, of two years ago. The whole life, the trajectory of his whole life, was one of ascent — a madreigah after another madreigah. I saw people who are bnei aliyah, but they are very few and far between. Nachman was certainly from that group of bnei aliyah, qualitative, quantitative. He made himself into a talmid chacham, into an oveid Hashem.

“When he first got sick, he told me, ‘I can’t be soivel this bitul Torah. I haven’t been mevatel Torah like this since I was six years old.’ That’s what was bothering him.

“The bein adam l’chaveiro. I don’t know if the person is here now, probably not. Dr. Schorr was examining his eyes and discovered a tumor behind the eyes. The person was operated and here he is now, probably over 25 years later because he saved his life.

“He was a ben aliyah and he made himself not only a learner, but accountable for his learning. I don’t know how many years it’s been that every month he made himself accountable to take a test, 30 blatt a month for years and years. He was able to get the stipend, several hundred dollars, every month. What did he do with his $300? Sent it to Eretz Yisrael to help somebody who’s sitting and learning. Never took a penny of all that money of all that work. The time that he spent to be able to do well in the bechinahs and the stipend that he was able to get from it he gave it away for hachzakas Torah.

“Nachman, you’re mamash from the crown jewels of the whole community. A person who was such a masmid and accomplished in learning.”

“It’s quite clear that he was able to do everything only because of his remarkable eizer k’negdo. Mrs. Schorr deserves homage, such credit, for developing such a talmid chacham for all these years.

“From the time we moved here, Nachman was someone all of us looked to as a source of inspiration that we’re proud of. Proud of him, proud of his eizer k’negdo. Mrs. Schorr was able to establish a climate, was able to establish a happy home, that served as a backdrop for Torah, chesed, and whole areas of avodas Hashem.”