(Arutz Sheva and Jewish Link Staff)
Rabbi Aryeh Waxman eulogized Daniel (Donny) Morris, a 19-year-old student from Bergenfield, New Jersey, who was a shana alelph student at the Sha’alvim yeshiva and who perished in the disaster at Meron last week, in an interview with Kan News Sunday. Morris was a graduate of Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey (RYNJ) and the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (MTA).
“It’s so hard to talk right now. I just want people to know that Israel has lost an angel. When he was with us, we could tell that he was an angel,” Rabbi Waxman said.
The rabbi said Morris was “a guy who always had a smile on his face. Maybe you saw a picture taken a quarter of an hour before he was taken from us. You see the light inside.”
“No one remembers him not smiling,” Rabbi Waxman stressed. “He always a good word, was always thirsty for Torah. He was always happy with his friends. Everyone loved him.”
“It is decreed from above that he is taken from us and we will continue to learn from him and with God’s help we will raise the name of heaven here in the material world for the ascension of his soul and we will continue to feel his influence here in this world,” he added.
Rabbi Avi Rosalimsky, who manages the teen minyan and various youth programs at Bergenfield’s Congregation Beth Abraham, echoed the same message of Donny’s positivity and ever-present smile. “Donny was a group leader who I worked very closely with for the past bunch of years in Beth Abraham. He took a tremendous amount of pride in teaching the 3rd-5th grade boys how to daven each Shabbos morning. But it wasn’t simply what he said that motivated them. He modeled davening for them and the boys loved him for it.
“Last year [before COVID], when the boys were about to play football in the park, I overheard one of the boys asking Donny, ‘Why do you always smile? Don’t you ever have a bad day?’
Donny responded, ‘Every day that Hashem allows me to wake up and spend time with you guys is a great day.’ The boy smiled and went on to play football.
