Rabbi Yaakov Frank, a teacher at Talmud Torah Derech Tevuna (elementary school) who taught the class in which Asher Menachem (Ushi) Paley Hy"d learned, described the aftermath of the terrorist attack last Friday and the responses of the boys in Ushi's class.

Ushi Paley was just seven years old when he was murdered in a ramming attack last Friday as he waited at a bus stop in northern Jerusalem with his father and brothers, one of whom (five-year-old Yaakov Yisrael) also lost his life.

"Around an hour before the end of classes on Friday, Ushi came up to me literally dancing with joy to tell me that he was going to Bnei Brak for Shabbat for the Sheva Brachot [post-wedding celebration] of his cousin," Frank told Radio Kol Chai. "He was so happy and excited about it. Later, when I heard what happened, I connected the two things and started to worry that it was him.

"It's really hard to speak about Ushi just in the space of a few minutes," Frank continued. "The class is not the same without him. He had such a simchat hachaim [joy in life], something you hardly see. He would arrive in class every morning with a huge smile, and he was always happy."

His teacher added, "I think that's something he learned from his parents, and now we've all seen how special this family is. Ushi would daven [pray] with such purity and he learned Torah with such enthusiasm, exceptional for someone so young."

"Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my life," he continues, describing the first day back in class after Ushi's murder. "I took advice from experts beforehand. Some of the boys didn't know about the terrorist attack and I had to tell them about what happened, following the advice I was given. Today, the advice isn't to hide things but rather to put things out in the open, of course leaving out all the graphic detail.

"The boys, seven and eight-year-olds, were asking very mature questions. I told them about how I'd been at Shaare Zedek hospital [where Ushi was hospitalized in critical condition and later succumbed to his injuries] and I could see that the class was really trying to deal with the experience.

"I gave each boy two or three minutes to express his feelings. Some of them are still traumatized. I told them that we are people of faith and that we know that Ushi is now in a good place in Shamayim [Heaven]. I've been teaching for 22 years and I don't remember such an emotional experience as that class. We sang together and the very walls seemed to be reverberating."

Ushi's teacher added that he had a "very close relationship with Ushi. He would even call me 'Abba' sometimes. Some of the students from other classes looked in yesterday to give me the traditional words of consolation: Hamakom yenachem etchem... May Hashem comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."

Meanwhile, Avraham Noach Paley, the boys' father, has been transferred to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital for continued treatment. His condition is defined as serious but stable, and he is currently sedated and on a ventilator.

The public is asked to pray for Avraham Noach ben Yehudit among all those in need of healing among the Jewish People.