(by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com)
There are no words to describe the loss and pain that the Far Rockaway Torah community is experiencing now, following the Petira of Dr Nachman Schorr ZT”L (60). As Rabbi Moshe Brown shlita said at the levaya yesterday, “We have lost the Crown Jewel of our community.”
Tehillim and tefilos 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 aishes chayil and to his children.
Dr. Schorr was an optometrist that served the whole community. His chessed was extraordinary – refusing to take payment from the needy and doing it in a way in which they retained their dignity. He was a baal tzedakah and a remarkable anav.
But, perhaps most significantly, he served as a shining example of what a Baal habaas 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 uncanny – passing the Dirshu test on shas with flying colors every month and donating that money – all of it – to a a needy family in Eretz Yisroel. He was a paragon of midos. He gave the Daf Yomi in the Agudah of West Lawrence shul and lived Torah.
Everything he did was through the prism of Torah and Shas.
Dr. Schorr zt”l had an international clientele – where people from Eretz Yisroel trusted him so much that they went to him for their glasses.
He built an extraordinary family as well. His children are role models of Torah, chessed and Avodas Hashem.
The audio of the levaya is a mussar sefer itself. It is this author’s contention that no one can listen to it without being fundamentally changed.
The author can be reached at [email protected]
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4 Responses
Just to clarify, Dr. Schorr gave the Daf Yomi shiur at the Agudah of West Lawrence in the summers when Rabbi Brown was away. If you want to hear his shiurim, they’re available on the Shas Illuminated website under Rabbi Brown’s name.
So sad! He had a heart of gold!
As a child he was an exceptional young man
Yes it is absolutely terrible, an absolute HUGE loss. But I am afraid that we are all a bit to blame CHAS V’SHALOM because AT THIS POINT Tefillos should not be saved for when a person is a choleh. Right now at this TERRIBLE TIME OF OVER 7+ MONTHS of UNPRCEDENTED TZAROS- ISN’T IT TIME THAT MANHIGIM AND ASKUNIM GET TOGETHER AND MAKE AN ABSOLUTELY HUGE ASIFA ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF IMPROVING OUR Tefillos in general??? WHAT IN HEAVENS NAME ARE WE WAITING FOR? Why should all of a sudden Hashem listen to our Tefillos if we did not have the sachel to be davening OUR BRAINS AND HEARTS OUT FOR THE PAST 7+ MONTHS. We are sound asleep at the wheel. I don’t want to Chas V’Shalom make a Kitrug, but on the other hand for some inexplicable TOTALLY EXPLAINABLE reason FOR THE PAST 7+ MONTHS I HAVE BARELY HEARD A WORD FROM ANYONE about how important it is that in such an Unprecedected עת צרה EVERYONE SHOULD BE MAKING HUGE CHIZUKIM WITH THEIR DAILY TEFILLOS. Can I suggest that we at least be mekabel EITHER to daven ONE SHEMONEH ESREI PER WEEK with AMAZING CONCENTRATION AND AMAZING INTENSITY AND PASSION having in mind all of KlaL Yisroel, (That’s what Shemone Esrei is written in the plural form.) that’s it JUST ONE shemone esrei per week. Or, at a minimum – put in HUGE CONCENTRATION AT THE BRACHOS OF REFUEINU AND SIM SHALOM (because of all the other issues that we are going through.) in EVERY Shemone Esrei at a minimum. The Gemara says that you shouldn’t wait until there are tzaros. Daven before there are Tzaros. OK, we Rachmana Litzlan have tzuros now, but let’s start DAVENING OUR HEADS OFF – NON-STOP – HUGE ASIFOS OF TEHILLIM AND CHIZUK OF TEFILLA UNTIL HASHEM SAYS OK- ENOUGH!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE WAITING FOR? THIS IS ALEPH BAIS JUDAISM AND IT’S NOT BEING DONE. והוא רחום יכפר עון. Can anyone help here?