Due to recent events, I will be making the Israel Wednesday post today instead of tomorrow. Last night, on the eighteenth day of their absence, Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Frankel, and Gil-ad Shaer were discovered murdered outside of Hebron. Today they were buried side by side in Modi’in, and that is what I would like to start with on this grim evening. Modi’in is a small city on the edge of the Green Line just north of Jerusalem. But the importance of Modi’in here is not what it is, but what it was. Modi’in was the home of the Maccabis and later the Hasmonean dynasty. I think it symbolizes the power and longevity of the Jewish spirit that these three boys, for lack of a better term-martyrs, have been entombed at this historical site. Eyal, Gil-ad, and Naftali rebelled against the oppressive world; they demonstrated their people’s right to the land of Israel every day by attending a yeshiva in the Judean city of Hebron. They demanded with their actions that we be free in our land to study our laws. The second factotum is that the yeshiva two of the boys attended was in Kfar Etzion. Kfar Etzion was one of the first Zionist outposts, and probably the first one in the Judean hills. It is a community which practically realizes the idea of returning to the land of our ancestors, and by travelling there every day, the boys aided that dream. The third boy attended a yeshiva fully in Hebron (Kfar Etzion is about half way between Jerusalem and Hebron). I would love to be able to tell you I know what is going to happen, but I don’t. I do not know with what force Israel will respond. I do not know how the Palestinian people, and particularly the terrorist strains among them, will act. I do not know if the men responsible for this tragedy will ever be accountable. When faced with such uncertainty, we must do two things: come together as a community and pray. I have never seen such a unanimous and zealous coming together of Jews from across the world in support of the three families and their sons. The outpouring of aid to the Yifrachs, Shaers, and Frankels has been nearly inundating. Our strength as a people is due to our community. We must reach out to each other in both the good times and the bad; the intensity dictates the degree of union. In times of hardship, reach out to a friend, who should extend his hand. In times of ease, stick out of your hand and seek to aid another. We are left now with prayer. We sadly cannot pray to bring Eyal, Gil-ad, and Naftali back to life. We should not pray for the three boys to be avenged by death. We must pray that no parents ever again lose a child to this horrible struggle. We must pray that Israelis and Arabs will one day live in peace, that they will no longer see each other as belligerent animals but as friendly people. We must pray that Eyal, Gil-ad, and Naftali’s souls watch over us from Gan Eden and give strength to Israelis to make the tough choices and not fall blindly into the trap of perpetual animosity and conflict. We must pray, for with God’s favor we will always have a home. There are several things we can do now to help Israel. Because prayer isn’t everyone’s thing, we can all help out through raising Israel awareness and aiding organizations which help Israeli terror victims and their families. One of my favorites is The Koby Mandell Foundation. Founded in 2001 by Rabbi Seth and Sherri Mandell in response to their thirteen year old son’s, Koby, murder, the Foundation provides therapeutic programs to the bereaving families of terror victims. It can be found at kobymandell.org. Another exemplary group is One Family (onefamilytogether.org). The other thing we can do is pray. This link is the prayer for the State of Israel jr.co.il/prayers/hebrew-israel-prayer.htm. Now, since they have been buried, it is halachically ok to recite Kadish for the three boys and the text is here ritualwell.org/sites/default/files/legacy/image.2005-07-19.0244645428 (it is not traditional to recite Kadish for someone who you have never met, but you do you). If you are having trouble dealing with this tragic situation, reach out to one of our Hanefesh members, including myself, and we will be happy to aid and jointly strengthen ourselves.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 23:31:19 +0000
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