GREAT READS → FOREVER GRATEFUL Issue 888 · December 1, 2021

Shot Down, Lifted Up

I opened the door — and found four men on the steps: my father-in-law and three Hatzalah members

Shot Down, Lifted Up

I’ll never forget the first time our oldest went to Shabbos Shacharis with my husband.

“Efraim Shalom wants to come to shul with me,” Eliahu said that Shabbos Chazon morning 16 years ago.

“Bring breakfast,” Eliahu instructed.

Efraim Shalom, then seven, packed some Cocoa Pebbles in a bag, and the two of them left to Yeshiva of Far Rockaway, a three-minute walk from our home. Eliahu remembers it was scalding outside, one of those stifling August mornings, and eerily silent.

I had told the women on my block that because Sunday was Tishah B’Av, and we wouldn’t be hanging out, they were invited for coffee and cake at my house 9:30 Shabbos morning. At nine a.m., one friend came by — she had heard about the get-together, but didn’t know what time it was called for. Ten minutes later, there was another knock on the door.

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