I am always amazed at the joy vitality and zest for life of Yehoshua Baruch Mendlowitz.

When I saw him at the wedding I asked what he was doing these days. He told me he’s an assistant to the first-grade rebbi at the local yeshivah. “The boys are very privileged to have you as a rebbi!” I told him. He smiled broadly and looked very happy.

Although Shua has spina bifida has been confined to a wheelchair his entire life and has faced numerous challenges most of us will never deal with his pure simchas hachayim is both contagious and enviable.

At the wedding when I remarked to his father Rav Raphael Mendlowitz how wonderful Shua looked he told me that on Chanukah Shua had made a siyum on all the tractates of Seder Moed! I looked over at Shua and I just mumbled the word “Unbelievable!”

Rav Raphael then added “And to think this all began because of Vikki.”

“Who’s Vikki?”

Rav Raphael then told me about Shua’s transformation from a boy in public school to a yeshivah bochur at the Torah School of Greater Washington in the Sulam program. (Sulam established in 1998 is the only Jewish school in the Greater Washington DC area for students with learning differences.)

One day when Shua was in third grade Vikki the non-Jewish bus driver who drove him to Forrest Knolls public school asked to speak to Rav Raphael.

“What’s the matter?” Rav Raphael asked her when they met. “Is Shua disrespectful or disruptive on the bus?”

“No” replied Vikki “not at all.”

“So what is the problem?”

Vikki hesitantly told Rav Raphael about Shua’s “wish” that he’d told her about more than once. “Almost every day when I pick up Shua he tells me he has one wish in the world. And when I ask him what that wish is he tells me that he hopes the Forrest Knolls School burns down at night and not one person should be injured. When I ask why he would wish for such a thing he looks at me and says ‘I so much want to go to Jewish school like my siblings and my friends. I want to be able to learn Torah and be with Jewish children like the other children I know. That’s why I want the school to burn down!’$$$seperatequote$$$”

Rav Raphael and his wife Chani heard the message. Within a short time Sulam was born. Shua Mendlowitz became a full-fledged yeshivah bochur and hundreds more Jewish children would be helped along the way.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I listened to Rav Raphael speak with such admiration and pride about his son.

I thought of all the times I “skipped” a learning seder because I was tired or just not in the mood. I looked across the room at Shua and saw greatness.

After wishing mazel tov to my hosts as I was leaving the wedding I made one more stop and that was Shua’s table. As we said good night I asked him if with the long ride back from Lakewood to Silver Springs he’d be able to get up for minyan in the morning.

Shua gave me a broad smile and joked “Tomorrow I’m davening at the Kosel.”

I looked at him and said “Shua wherever and whenever you daven you’re always at the ‘Kosel.'