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A man whose body was found in a burned-out car in Brooklyn was a 23-year-old Hasidic yeshiva student who appeared to have set himself on fire as a sacrifice, police sources said Monday.

His friends and family never saw it coming

The man’s scorched body was discovered in the driver’s seat of a 2018 Honda Accord consumed by flames on the sidewalk of 39th St. near 12th Ave. in Borough Park about 2:50 a.m.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The car was parked on the sidewalk. The city medical examiner will determine how he died.

Cops did not immediately identify the victim, but sources in the neighborhood identified him as Shmiel Fishman. Neighbors said Fishman was an electrician.

“Nobody understands what happened here, why he did what he did,” a source with ties to the family said. "Everybody’s shocked at what happened. He was a good kid, nobody understands what happened here. They didn’t expect this.”

“He was one of the greatest people I’ve met in my life,” a friend said. “Always smiling, always willing to the be there for people.”

About 200 tearful mourners gathered for a rainy funeral outside Congregation Nachlas Boruch Rodnick in Borough Park Monday evening.

In a eulogy, Rabbi Baruch Shimshon Halberstam summarized Fishman’s time in his community, including volunteering at NYU Langone Hospital and raising about $34,000 for the wedding of a young couple.

“He was always there to help, always with a smile, always happy to make people happy," he said.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-body-burning-car-brooklyn-20190513-ohkyk5ebrnahfpqgqtcxaideti-story.html