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Ordinary GiftThe Rabbi Stewart Weiss
Heroes
of Life
I know Shai Chaim well. He was one
of our son Ari’s closest friends. the bullet or repair the damage to his learning how to ride and glide in his
They served together in the IDF’s nervous system. He was paralyzed from wheelchair.
Palchan HaNachal, an elite anti-terror the waist down. After 48 hours, the Shai was a member of Israel’s wheelchair
unit. During the Second Intifada – doctors told him he would live, but he basketball team at the 2008 Paralympics
marked by almost daily terror attacks would never walk again. in Beijing.
– the unit was involved in numerous Everyone thought that was it for Shai. A year after the shooting, he married
missions to root out the perpetrators Everyone, that is, except Shai himself. his girlfriend Tamar, an equally strong-
and protect Israeli cities. He was determined to go on with life – willed kibbutznik who had helped nurse
Shai was an outstanding athlete and the after all, his very name means “the Gift him back to health.
beefiest, toughest kid in the unit, with of Life.” Nothing would stop him from At their wedding – at which I had the
huge forearms and a barrel-chested doing all the things he had dreamed of honor of officiating – Shai stunned the
physique. My wife Susie, jokingly, would doing. crowd by “walking” down the aisle in
always tell Ari to stand behind Shai if One of his first questions was whether specially-constructed, battery-operated
there was any trouble, because he would he would have to give up on sport. “Not leg braces worn under his pants. And
block any incoming fire. Little did she if you don’t want to,” the doctor told Tamar held on to his arm as he “lifted”
know… him. “You and only you will determine his right foot and broke the glass.
what you can do from now on.”

On September 30, 2002, Shai’s unit was That was all Shai needed to hear. The glass wasn’t the only thing broken
part of a raid on Hamas headquarters From that moment, he decided there that night; every heart melted as Shai
in Nablus’s infamous casbah, where would be no limits in his life. He invited his fellow occupants from
they uncovered a treasure trove of spent four months in intensive rehab, the handicapped ward to join him in
information on terrorist activities, lists working out strenuously with weights, a special “dance of the wheelchairs,”
of terrorists and planned future attacks. strengthening his upper body and showing them that they too could be full
Suddenly, Arab snipers hiding in a participants in the joys of life.
nearby building began shooting. Two
bullets hit Shai and he slumped to the
ground. Ari rushed to his side, shielding
him with his body. A bullet penetrated
Ari’s lung and killed him instantly.

Shai was still alive but time was ticking.
They airlifted him to a field hospital
in Shavei Shomron, and then to Sheba
Hospital at Tel HaShomer.

One of the bullets had lodged in his
spine and he needed emergency surgery.
Before he lost consciousness, Shai
scribbled on a piece of paper, “My friend
Ari was killed. Please be sure I get to his
funeral.”

Surgeons removed Shai’s kidney and The last photo of Ari (l) and Shai (r), taken just 15 minutes before they were shot
saved his life, but they could not remove

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