Hundreds of family members, brothers in arms and friends from Hakotel Yeshiva accompanied First Sergeant Evyatar Turjeman to his final resting place at Har Herzl, in Jerusalem, late Tuesday night.
Evyatar was a native of Beit She'an and a student at the Hakotel Yeshiva in Jerusalem's Old City. He fell in an intense firefight with terrorists in Gaza. He served in the Paratroopers and was the Deputy Battalion Commander's radio operator, and was about to return to the yeshiva for the study phase in his military service.
Former Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, said at the funeral that Evyatar and his comrades, who went consciously, with courage and bravery, to risk their lives in order to sanctify the Name of G-d – receive the highest honor in the Upper World. “Our enemies must understand that the Nation of Israel loves life, but will never break,” he said.
Yinon, Evyatar's brother, who serves as a reserve officer and was stationed on the border with Gaza, told those attending that when his commanders summoned him, he could see in their eyes that Evyatar had been hurt. “We, here, will miss your happiness, your light, very much,” he said.
Hakotel's Rosh Yeshiva (Yeshiva Dean) Rabbi Baruch Vider eulogized Evyatar and said that he had wanted very much to return to the yeshiva and to learning the Torah which he loved very much, but “G-d decided to take him to study with Him in the heavenly yeshiva, with the other tzaddikim (righteous ones), the other yeshiva students who fell in combat."
He added that the dedication with which Evyatar tended to his parents after a traffic accident the family had endured was “a great example of respect for one's parents.”
Lt. Col. Evyatar Ben Haim, Commander of the Paratroopers' Training Base, said that Evyatar had been a brave combat soldier who was killed when he served in the battalion's command squad.
“Your commanders defined you as a hero and a man of merit, who believes in the righteousness of the path and is imbued with a feeling of mission. I salute you for the last time, in the name of the battalion's fighters.”