GREAT READS → SPEECHLESS MOMENTS Issue 878 · September 16, 2021

Rabbi Avi Shafran

There was one moment when I could respond only with silence

Rabbi Avi Shafran
Rabbi Avi Shafran
Director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America
New York

For better or worse, I’m rarely at a loss for words, as countless conversational victims of mine can attest.

But there was one moment when I could respond only with silence.

It was in 2017, on the first yahrtzeit of my father. He’d been an inspiration to so many in his role as rav of a shul for more than a half-century, a beloved father to my siblings, me, and our spouses, and a devoted grandfather to every one of his grandchildren.

My wife and I were visiting our son Dovie and his family in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he was learning in kollel. One of our daughters, Shiffy, was in the neighborhood with her husband and children. The yahrtzeit fell on Erev Shabbos, and my wife and I visited my father’s kever in suburban Maryland early in the day.

Continue reading with Mishpacha.

Create a free account to keep reading.

Everything you need to stay close to Mishpacha.
← Previous installment Rabbi Benzion Klatzko Next installment → Rabbi Efraim Stauber