28 Mar Losing a Good Friend Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Sprecher z”l
The first time I remember meeting Shlomo Zalman Ben Pesach Moshe Sprecher z’l was in 1968. The previous Spring, Mesivta Torah Vodaas had moved from Williamsburg to Flatbush. One aspect of this new building was that athletics moved from a schoolyard to a beautiful new gym on the top floor of the building on East 9th Street.That year our good friends Abe Mordowitz and Sammy Trencher were elected President and Vice President of the G.O.respectively. I was selected to be Sports Coordinator. Daily, at lunchtime I would open the gym and when there wasn’t an organized activity there would be two half court games of three on three. Usually, the better athletes would get to play in the first game and the lesser athletes would call ‘next’. I remember this scrawny, geeky kid sitting in the corner always with a book or a Sefer waiting for next. When he would get to play, he was awkward, but quick, but what I remember most was his enthusiasm. I would marvel at how he would be overpowered physically, but he never gave up and always gave 110%. When I was on his team I played harder because his enthusiasm was infectious.
Fast forward thirty years, it was 1990 that I began davening at Khal Sasregen. I remember coming to Shul on a Shabbos afternoon and there was a chaburah that included R’ Avrohom Zucker, R’ Sender Epstein, Jay Fenster, Menachem Rosenberg and others. Loudest and most enthusiastic among them that day was Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Sprecher. That scrawny kid was now Chief of Radiology at Peninsula Hospital and a tremendous Talmud Chochem and Magid Shiur in his own right. He was always available to give a Shiur or lecture at the drop of the hat and with little or no preparation required. His breath and depth of knowledge was mind boggling. What was equally mind boggling was the modesty which accompanied this genius. He was able to speak to everybody at their level. He was able to make you feel like you were at his level even though you and he both knew that he was head and shoulders above you.
In addition, to his quest for knowledge he was an Ish Chesed. When the Admor M’Sasregen Shlita was suffering with terrible backaches the only MD he would trust was Dr. Sprecher. I remember driving the Rebbe on a few occasions to Peninsula Hospital in the Rockaways so that he would be under the watchful eyes of Dr. Sprecher. The personal care was there as he did not delegate the exam to an underling. What I remember was the great respect the staff at the hospital had for Dr. Sprecher, not only for his medical brilliance, but for his treatment of the staff, not as underlings, but as equals. What a Kiddush Hashem! In a neighborhood with not very many Jews stood this beacon for all of us to emulate. Having observed how Dr. Sprecher treated the Rebbe, when I had an issue with my gallbladder there was only one place I would go for a diagnosis. He helped so many people in the neighborhood by reviewing their scans, MRI’s, etc. There was no fanfare just that enthusiasm to help people.
On behalf of the Hanhala of Khal Sasregen we are asking mechilla from Rabbi Dr. Sprecher because he was not treated with the proper respect he deserved. We allowed him to partially leave and the loss was ours. His scintillating Shiur im and lectures are now lost to us forever.
In Yiddish there is an expression which translates to everything by someone exists by no one. But Shlomo Zalman Ben Pesach Moshe z’l came as close as anyone to having it all.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to Mattie, Eli, Uri, Nechama, Miri and the entire Sprecher family. May he be a Maylitz Yosher for you and all of Khal Yisroel.