A moving discovery has come to light at the Satmar yeshiva in Komemiyus, revealing a poignant detail from the final hours of a 17-year-old bochur who was killed earlier this month in a tragic accident.

Naftali Tzvi Kramer z”l was struck and killed by a bus on the second day of Shevat near Komemiyus as he was returning with fellow talmidim from a protest opposing post-mortem examinations. In the hours before the accident, he approached the person responsible for the yeshiva otzar haseforim and asked that the otzar haseforim purchase a newly released sefer titled Shema Shlomo, a collection of teachings from Rav Shlomo of Karlin, who was killed al kiddush hashem.

The demonstration Naftali attended had been organized by members of the Badatz of the HaEdah HaChareidis following the horrific daycare tragedy in Yerushalayim in which two young children lost their lives. Talmidim from the yeshiva traveled to protest in defense of kavod hameis. As the group was returning to Komemiyus, a bus drove into them at high speed near the moshav. Naftali was killed at the scene, in front of his stunned friends.

The sefer Naftali had requested, Shema Shlomo, was recently republished in an expanded and elegant edition. It brings together the teachings, minhagim, and accounts of the life of Rav Shlomo Halevi of Karlin, one of the foremost disciples of the Maggid of Mezeritch and a foundational figure in the early Chassidic movement.

Rav Shlomo of Karlin himself was murdered al kiddush hashem on the 22nd of Tammuz in the year 1792, during the Polish-Russian war. A Cossack shot him through the window of a shul in Ludmir while he was wrapped in his tallis and deeply immersed in davening. He succumbed to his wounds several days later. Since then, he has been revered as a kadosh, and thousands visit his kever each year on the yahrtzeit.

Only after Naftali’s petirah did fellow talmidim learn of his quiet request to acquire the sefer. In retrospect, it took on an especially haunting meaning. Talmidim spoke emotionally of the striking parallel: a young man drawn, in his final hours, to the teachings of a tzaddik who gave his life for his faith, before himself being taken while returning from a protest conducted to defend the honor of the deceased.

The revelation sparked a powerful wave of chizuk throughout the yeshiva. Talmidim quickly fulfilled Naftali’s request, purchasing the sefer and placing it in the yeshiva otzar haseforim in his memory.

{Matzav.com}