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.