She created noteworthy stories on a daily basis. We chose stories that are representative of Shayna’s accomplishments. We hope that they give the reader an appreciation of her unique life.
Shayna exemplified her name. Shayna means beauty, yofi-tiferet in Hebrew. Chassidus explains that beauty is revealed in a harmony of parts. Some people are kind and giving. Others are smart and into learning. Some people are good teachers and others are good at mivtzaim. Some people are good at working with small children, while others are better with other ages. Some people work well within the Chabad community. Some people work well with other religious people. Each one of these types of holy work is like a different color. Shayna lived a life rich with many colors.
Shayna Bracha bas Chaim Borevitz O.B.M. was born on 18 Menachem Av 5753 in Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh. After battling a painful sickness for four years, she passed away at the young age of 18 on the 2nd Light of Chanukah, 26 Kislev 5772.
Shayna’s caring hand reached far beyond that of the typical eighteen-year-old, touching the hearts of people beyond her own community, and left a deep imprint on all those who knew her. Her passing left a profound sense of loss in her dear family, her large circle of friends, her many students, and even casual acquaintances.
Shayna was a special gift from the day she was born. Her mother was two weeks overdue and sent to the hospital for an ultrasound to confirm the decision to induce. Her parents received permission from the doctors to go home for a couple hours before reporting to the delivery ward. They hurried home to fax the Rebbe for a bracha for a healthy baby and a natural childbirth.
Her parents had thought they would call their second daughter Chana. However, when they shared their first few minutes together with their newborn baby, they both had a feeling that this baby needed a different name. As they began discussing names, nothing seemed to fit. Her father started looking through the names of Beis Rebbe printed in the HaYom Yom for names they may not have thought of. He noticed the name Shayna Bracha, a granddaughter of the Tzemach Tzedek and sister of the Rebbetzin Shterna Sara. That name seemed to fit perfectly. Over the years, they would see more and more how their girl was truly a Shayna Bracha.
Shayna lived her first two years in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Yerushalayim. She helped her parents in their shlichus. She was a pretty baby with an infectious smile that charmed everybody. Her family journeyed from the Holy Land to California and to Florida before settling in Crown Heights, Brooklyn in New York.
As a young child, Shayna was both smart and beautiful. She was also athletic, adventurous, and fearless. A family friend, who often visits old age homes, related that when Shayna was only about seven, she took her to visit an old age home. She was amazed that Shayna had no fear or aversion of being close to the old people, which is often the case with young children. She spoke with and smiled to the old people and let them give her a kiss as if it was a natural thing to do.
Shayna was meticulous in fulfilling kibud av v’em. Her fourth grade teachers at Beis Chaya Mushka remarked in a PTA meeting that they never saw a child with such respect towards her parents. She always spoke about them with admiration and love. She would prepare them special dishes and had them in mind wherever she went.
Her father was in the hospital for a week about seven months before she passed away. She spent the whole week with him in the hospital. The doctors and nurses remarked that they never saw such a dedicated child. She only left to go teach her classes and a make it to a few medical appointments. On the way back to the hospital, she would stop and buy him fresh fruits and vegetables to make him healthy treats. The rest of the time she was by his side. They learned and schmoozed, and she made sure he was as comfortable as possible.
The hospital room was very hot. They had to keep the door open to get some cool air, but the light and noise from the hallway disturbed her father’s sleep. There was a window, but it was locked. After waiting two days for the hospital staff to find a solution, Shayna went to work picking the lock. She took her father’s laptop and watched some YouTube videos on how to pick locks. After reviewing the one that seemed the most relevant, she began searching for tools. In less than an hour, there was a nice spring breeze moving through the room!
By the time her youngest sister Gitty was born, Shayna’s health had deteriorated considerably. She was getting weaker and could walk only with great pain and difficulty. When her mother returned from the hospital, the baby was crying all night. Shayna was concerned that her mother needed to sleep after the birth, so she walked down the hallway to pick up the baby and took her back to her own bed. She played with her baby sister the rest of the night, so her mother could sleep.
She had a special touch with babies. On a plane ride to California to visit her grandmother, she was sitting next to a new mother who couldn’t quiet her infant. Shayna took the baby from the mother and quickly quieted her down. She then discovered that the new mother was the daughter of one of her grandmother’s best friends!
Shayna also had a special affinity for hachnasas orchim. Because of this, her favorite time of year was Tishrei in Crown Heights, especially Sukkos, because with the men in the Sukka, there was room for double the amount of guest. She loved to spend hours cooking with her mother and sister. As others got nourished from food, she was sustained by her pleasure in seeing her guests eating well and having a good time.
One Tishrei guest related to us that as a bachur, he once came over after the meal was over, and there was almost no food left to serve him. He said he expected some wine and a little challa; a little piece of fish or chicken if he’s lucky. He said that Shayna started taking vegetables out of the refrigerator and making him fresh salads. She didn’t stop until she served a proper Yom Tov meal.
Shayna’s selfless love for others was non-stop. When she went to the hospital for difficult treatments, she always found presents to bring back for her little brothers and sisters. When her older sister was upset about the way her wedding pictures turned out, she stayed up late picking out the best pictures. She then called her to reassure her that she found a nice sum of pictures to choose for the album. When her friends called and made bikkur cholim visits, she always turned the conversations around to be about what was happening in their lives. What problems and predicaments were they dealing with? By the end of the conversations, Shayna had given good advice, made her friends feel better, and not revealed a word about her troubles.
Her Ahavas Yisroel was like the words of HaYom Yom from her birthday, Chai Menachem Av: The Mitteler Rebbe quoted the Alter Rebbe: “Ahavas Yisroel must possess one to the very core of life itself.”
When her students at Machon Chana asked her how old she was, she wouldn’t tell them her age, because she didn’t want to make them feel bad that they’re learning from someone so much younger than them.
One of her mother’s adult students called and cried desperately that she can’t find a job. When her mother finished the phone call, Shayna asked what it was about. After hearing the sad story, she asked her mother, “nu, what are you going to do for her?” Her mother shrugged her shoulders and told her that she didn’t feel she could do anything besides give her some words of encouragement. Shayna said that is not enough and began looking at Jewish internet sites for job listings. When she didn’t find anything relevant, she started brainstorming about other possibilities. Eventually, she called a well-known member of Anash that has a business and asked him if he could find a position for this woman. He agreed. She went for an interview and was offered a job.
One day her family got a call from some bachurim in 770 that were organizing a chasuna for a baal t’shuva couple whose parents weren’t helping or coming to the wedding. The couple had no money for a wedding. Bachurim were asking families to make a salad, a cake, etc., and they needed girls to come to dance with the Kalla. Upon hearing of the situation, Shayna immediately took charge. She mobilized her high school to start preparing food, buying decorations, and setting up the hall. She made sure it was elegant and classy, so the kalla wouldn’t feel her wedding was missing a thing. It was a beautiful chasuna with great food, and the kalla danced the whole night with her new friends.
On one of the few days she came to school in 12th grade, she met a 9th grader in the hallway who was very intimidated by the older girls. Shayna started talking with her in her typical warm sweet manner. At the end of the conversation, she told her, “Take my phone number. If you need anything, give me a call.” This conversation changed this girl’s high school experience.
When her first classmate got married, she felt she had to come to the wedding. Even though she was very weak, had a fever and severe pains in her legs, she went. She knew it would make her friend happy. She also was worried that if she didn’t come, her friend’s special day would be dampened from worrying about why Shayna didn’t come.
There’s no other way to say it. Shayna loved the Rebbe, and she loved his Torah. The Rebbe’s words inspired her to heights in avoda that were truly amazing. One day during the early spring of 5771, her leg hurt her very much. It was very hard for her to walk. She had a class to teach at Boruch College in Manhattan. Her mother told her that the Rebbe would understand if she skipped the class because of her health. She didn’t want to skip teaching the class. Finally, she agreed with her mother to write to the Rebbe. She opened up a letter in Igros that spoke about Hafatzas HaMaayanos. She closed the seifer, and ran out the door to catch the subway to Manhattan.
For Shayna, the ultimate beauty was a sicha of the Rebbe. She felt so fortunate to be able to perceive the beauty in the Rebbe’s words. She pitied her fellow Jew that didn’t know how beautiful the Rebbe’s Torah is. Her teaching was truly an expression of her ahavas Yisroel. She wanted the best for every Yid, and for her, the Rebbe’s Torah was the best. Because of this, she was constantly finding ways to teach the Rebbe’s Torah. It also explains why she was such a successful and inspirational teacher.
When the head counselor of Camp Simcha pleaded with her to come to the camp, she agreed to come only on the condition that she could teach. A deal was made. Shayna was to speak a few times, like on Shabbos night to all the campers and staff. However, this wasn’t enough for Shayna. One of her friends from Camp Simcha told us that when Shayna felt there wasn’t enough ruchnius in the camp’s daily routine, she went to the head counselor and told her that starting tomorrow, there would be a half hour shiur with Shayna Borevitz every day.
Her influence on the Chai Lifeline family was year-round. She organized a weekly conference call in which she gave over a Nekuda from one of the Rebbe’s sichos on the parsha. This phone shiur sometimes had 30 participants. The participants were both volunteers and girls that were or had been sick. She was also invited to speak at Beis Yaakov of Boro Park and various events for the Chai Lifeline volunteers. These were all non-Chabad girls from Boro Park, Williamsburg, Monsey, Far Rockaway, etc.
The impact she had was profound. When the Chai Lifeline family had to deal with a Boruch Dayan Emes, the volunteers immediately called Shayna to come and give them chizuk. A Chassidish Yid from Boro Park that met Shayna on Mekimi’s annual trip to Niagara Falls expressed his admiration for Shayna. He said, “She is a tz’nua, chassida, and a talmida chochama. She totally believes in the Likkutei Sichos and is truly mechakei lo b’chol yom sh’yavoy!” One of the volunteers who was very close to Shayna described Shayna’s impact this way, “if Shayna had been granted a longer life, all of Boro Park would have been Chabad.”
Her efforts to spread the Rebbe’s Torah were much broader than just working with non-Chabad frum girls. She organized and gave a weekly class at Boruch College for girls. She also taught at Machon Chana, Ohr Chana, and various Chabad Houses in Long Island.
She was overwhelmed with joy upon seeing that one of her students understood what she was teaching. To this end, she worked very hard. Her daily schedule was busy running to schools in Crown Heights in the morning, dashing to Manhattan mid-day, and carpooling to Long Island in the afternoon. She would stay up late at night preparing her classes. She would learn sichos and create materials to ensure her students understood the material. She prepared flow charts to make note taking easier, games for children, and attractive posters to attract college girls to come to her classes.
One of the Rebbe’s main teachings is to help other Jews do mitzvos, what we call mivtzaim. Shayna loved to go on mivtzaim. She also inspired other people to do mivtzaim. When she went on a Chai Lifeline sponsored trip to the amusement parks in Orlando, FL, she took mivtzaim menorahs to give out. On that trip, she didn’t feel well. It was shortly after a round of chemotherapy. Nevertheless, as she went around the amusement parks in a wheel chair, she would ask people, “are you Jewish?” By the end of the first day, the Chai Lifeline volunteers learned how to do it. On the way to the exits, the non-Chabad girls were asking people, “are you Jewish?” When they succeeded in finding Jews that hadn’t lit a menorah, they were thrilled! Back at the hotel, the counselors made a fun Chanukah party. Shayna noticed that the photographer looked like he might be Jewish. She asked. He was a Russian Jew and happily lit the menorah for the first time in his life. He told Shayna that he’d been taking pictures for the Chai Lifeline Chanukah parties for years, and nobody ever thought to ask him if he was Jewish.
Despite her young age, Shayna was a teacher and a role model. Because tznius is an important mitzvah, Shayna found ways to encourage other Jewish girls and women to improve in this mitzvah. Shayna was blessed with remarkable physical beauty. She also had a sophisticated, elegant, and creative sense of style. She used her beauty and sense of style to show other girls that they could be beautiful and tznius at the same time without compromising either one.
Shayna was deeply committed to being tznius because of its importance in the Torah and how much emphasis the Rebbe gave to it. She was also passionate about being beautiful. For her, beauty was an expression of Hashem’s honor. She wanted everything to be beautiful for the Jewish people, especially Jewish women. She took the idea of Jewish women being Hashem’s daughters literally. Shayna’s ideal of beauty could not exist outside the laws of tznius. Her passion for beauty wasn’t limited to clothes. She wanted everything in a Jew’s life to be gorgeous. For her, it was all zeh keili v’anveihu. Nevertheless, she had a practical side. She didn’t spend a lot of money on clothes. She worked hard to find inexpensive items that she could piece together into a stunning outfit.
Shayna had a knack of finding just the right kind words to inspire other people to do more. The head counselor of Camp Simcha, who was about 10 years older than Shayna, shared the following with us. “Shayna told me that she was so proud of me for being careful to always keep my knees covered. She said it was so important because I’m a role model to so many girls. Shayna’s sweet little comment made me understand my position as a role model in a whole new way. Needless to say, I’ve been much more careful about the way I dress ever since.”
During her four year battle with her illness, she was the symbol of emuna and bitachon. Everybody that met her was inspired. As soon as the terrible diagnosis came, she received a bracha from the Rebbe. Her emuna in the bracha never wavered. It didn’t matter how many times she got bad news. She never questioned the Rebbe’s brachos. She encouraged everyone around her.
Her trust even allowed her to have fun in the hospital sometimes. When she had markers for a head operation across her forehead before Purim, she took makeup and turned the markers into a Purim costume. When a friend that came to keep her company in the hospital was nervous, she told her to come onto her hospital bed and then started raising the bed up high until they could touch the roof. The nurses came running in to find where the loud laughter was coming from.
Shayna spent a lot of time with doctors and nurses. She endured over two years of chemotherapy, one surgery on her head, and one open heart surgery. While they looked at her with pitying faces and delivered dire predictions, she kept smiling. She didn’t allow their negativity to influence her spirit at all. After treating Shayna for four years, her main oncologist said, “You can’t imagine what madreiga this young woman was on!”
She was a source of tremendous encouragement to other sick children. She constantly told them tracht gut, vet zain gut. They loved her and were thirsty for her smiling face and words of encouragement.
As her days grew more difficult, she rose higher and higher in spirit. When her eyesight began to fail, she was given an iPad by a generous supporter of Chai Lifeline. She used the iPad to enlarge the letters of the siddur, so that only one word fit on the whole iPad screen. She used to take an hour to say Birchas HaMazon this way. Krias Shma al HaMitta sometimes took a whole night. When she couldn’t read by herself, she asked others to read her Chumash, Tanya, and sichos of the Rebbe. Even when every movement caused her pain, she was careful to keep her knees covered when men entered the room she was in.
A couple of weeks before she passed away, she was taking a lot of morphine for the pain. One day, she told her father that she doesn’t need any more painkillers. Her father related, “At first, I was sure the miracle we’d been waiting for started to happen. But, after about 36 hours, I began suspecting that she was still in pain.” Shayna had decided to stop taking the pain medication. She was absolutely certain that the Rebbe’s bracha will make her healthy. A healthy person doesn’t need pain medication, so to make herself a keili for the Rebbe’s brachos, she stopped taking the morphine.
Shayna recognized that she experienced tremendous spiritual growth through her illness. About a year before she passed away when she celebrated being in remission, she told her family that she was happy that she had been sick. She said she couldn’t have grown to whom she now was had she not been ill.
Shayna was a true l’chat’chilla aribber person. She ignored obstacles and kept going higher and higher. She had a determination that never quit, and she set herself lofty goals. She didn’t let her situation or predicament decide what she might be able to do. She looked at what would be the best thing to do and found a way to do it. Equally amazing is that even though she burned with a fiery passion inside, she had a sweet and gentle personality.
The stories above are but a small taste of Shayna’s life. She created noteworthy stories on a daily basis. We chose stories that are representative of Shayna’s accomplishments. We hope that they give the reader an appreciation of her unique life.
May we all learn from Shayna to grow from our tests and go beyond our limitations. With inspiration from her life, may we do the good deeds that will tip the scales and bring the Geula with Moshiach NOW!