Did they ever imagine that he’d be able to repeat a prayer in Aramaic, in front of 200 people, in memory of his father?

If you happen to have davened one particular Shabbos morning in the attractive brick edifice formally called Congregation Beis Knesses Avigdor (more popularly known as “Rabbi Kahn’s shul”), you merited to witness a miracle of monumental proportions.

Presumably most people who were there know that they enjoyed a serious, committed, and very quiet davening. And a few surely recognized that the fourth aliyah for parshas Shoftim was recited by a particular young man who regularly davens in that minyan.

The young man sported a very yeshivish Borsalino, his tie coordinated with his dark navy suit, and his tallis carefully rested on each shoulder. His tone may have been a bit on the quiet side, but the nusach and tune with which he said the brachos for his aliyah were just like those that preceded and those who would follow him. His words did have a certain guttural quality — a common occurrence for people with Down syndrome — but his pronunciation was clear and the cadence traditional.

Did anyone listening to him lein know that three decades earlier this same young man had been given a prognosis of total dependence on others for his basic needs? That it was determined he would be unlikely to communicate or speak?

Did the physicians who made those predictions ever dream that he would read a newspaper and calendar? That he would remember the Hebrew and secular dates for all the year’s Yamim Tovim as well as family members’ birthdays and anniversaries? That he would be able to pick up a siddur and find Kiddush Levanah — and then explain that was why he got home so late?

Did they ever imagine that he’d be able to repeat a prayer in Aramaic, in front of 200 people, in memory of his father?

The first time he said the full Kaddish, his voice was barely audible in the women’s section. But the second time, someone realized that he was not familiar with the words. This unknown gentleman stood next to him and gave him a bit of coaching. Was it the same person who sits next to him on Yamim Noraim to help him follow the special tefillos?