[Bearshouse]

I listened to Paul Harvey each morning on my drive into work. I remember a few years back getting to work and I had to sit in my vehicle for a while and just let the tears flow, and I assure you I'm not particularly emotional as a rule, but Mr. Harvey cut me to the heart that morning. He told the story of the Torah that was on the space shuttle Columbia the day it broke apart on re-entry.

As was his style he built the back story and left you in suspense. He began telling of the young man in Auschwitz that came of age and wanted to have the bar mitzvah ceremony and approached a Rabbi. The Rabbi gave him a Torah he had hidden and told him which passages he must learn and recite for the ceremony. Afterwards the Rabbi told him to keep the Torah safe and tell others the story because he knew he would not make it out alive. At the time of the shuttle disaster, that young man was Joachim Joseph, a 71-year-old atmospheric physicist at Tel Aviv University who was overseeing an Israeli experiment aboard the shuttle.

Years later, the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon wept when he heard the story and asked to take the Torah on the Columbia to show the world that the Jewish people could survive anything.

God bless Paul Harvey, he could make you feel the tragedy like no one else.

[gigster]

Paul Harvey is with his “Angel” now.
It is silly to think, but sometimes, I always thought that Paul would always tell me “The Rest Of The Story”.