‘Donny Morris z”l Memorial Program’ Inspires Learning and Mitzvot By Pearl Markovitz | May 20, 2021
Nachman Daniel ben Aryeh Tzvi, Donny Morris, z”l, was gifted to his family, friends and communities in the U.S. and Israel for a brief 19 years. On Lag B’Omer he was taken from them during the tragedy on Mt. Meron. Thousands were in attendance at his heartbreaking levaya at Yeshivat Sha’alvim and tens of thousands joined via Zoom as he was buried on Har HaZeitim. Shiva began in Israel and concluded at his family’s home in Bergenfield.
The overwhelming task of finding a meaningful way to mourn the loss of such a precious young soul for 30 days leading up to the Shloshim was left to the family and community. During the shiva, a handwritten weekly schedule of learning was located among Donny’s possessions. Noted immediately was that every time slot in his schedule, from morning until late into the night hours, minus davening and meal times
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The Mets were walked off by the Rays, losing 3-2 to snap their seven-game winning streak. Tyler Glasnow retired the first 14 Mets hitters he faced before Kevin Pillar got on ahead of Jonathan Villar, who put the Mets on the board with a two-run homer. David Peterson was brilliant, at one point retiring 17 Rays in a row. But the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead this time. Trevor May gave up a game-tying double in the eighth inning, Miguel Castro loaded the bases in the ninth, and Aaron Loup gave up a walk-off base hit to Brett Phillips.
Without a support system, a tzibbur, religion gets stale fast. Why?
Last week, I had a phone conversation with a devastated young bochur, Shua Pariser, whose family davens in my shul. Shua is currently learning in Eretz Yisrael, and this past year he learned three sedorim a day in MTA with Donny Morris, one of the pure souls who lost his life in Meron.
Shua told me how he had planned to spend Shabbos parshas Emor together with Donny in yeshivah… plans that were not meant to be. Shua had instead delivered two hespedim about his best friend, one at the Kosel and the other in yeshivah, extolling the niftar’s incredible middos and simchas hachayim.
There is no explanation as to why a 19-year-old boy from Teaneck/Bergenfield lost his life and is gone, lost to his family forever, nor is there a reason why my friends in yeshiva now preface their good deeds with “l’ilui nishmas” for one of the shana aleph bachurim. I am meant to say “l’ilui nishmas” for my father every year. Rebbeim are not meant to say it for their talmidim. It is incomprehensible that there is now a gaping hole in the lives of so many, that a family was forced to come to Israel to go on a final walk with their son and brother, only to eternally leave him behind halfway through. Perhaps we will just leave it at that, then incomprehensible and despicable.
Tragedy in Meron: Israel Mourns By Jewish Link Staff | May 06, 2021
After Lag B’Omer night’s celebration turned tragic, with heavy hearts, the Jewish nation began grieving 45 lives lost at Mount Meron, with a national day of mourning declared on Sunday.
Many communities, populations and subpopulations within Israel were personally affected by events of the night, either directly as they were also at the mountainside celebration, or knew people who were there; or by seeing news reports or harrowing posts on social media as the events unfolded. With 150,000 attendees at Meron at the time of the disaster and about another 300,000 on their way or having already left, many were left with indelible images in their minds of the events as they transpired. Individuals attending the event were also stranded or separated from their groups. In addition to those who died, approximately 150 people were injured. The cell phone system was not working during the