Eliezer Rosenfeld, father of 26-year-old Malachi Rosenfeld who was fatally wounded in a terror attack Monday evening, delivered a heart-rending farewell to his son at his funeral Wednesday.
In an emotional eulogy, Eliezer described an outgoing and thoughtful young man, "always joking," who had "really come into his own" in the years before his tragic death.
"This is a great national tragedy," he said.
"I raised an ambitious boy, wise, with such great intelligence. He went out to play basketball, a competition between communities, and didn't come back. It's shameful, what is happening in our country."
During the eulogy, the grieving father - supported by two of his remaining seven children - sang a song of faith.
"Even in the most concealed of concealed moments"' sang the bereaved father "certainly G-d, blessed be He, is also found there."
Amid sobs from other mourners, he urged his tearful audience to sing with him as he reached the words: "Even behind the most difficult things that happen to you, He (still) stands, He stands - and we will stand, we will stand with G-d."
Speaking to his dead son he ended: "My sweet, my sweet... come back to visit us."
Malachi's parents are among the founders of Kochav Hashachar, a village north of Jerusalem in Samaria where he lives.
The family is no stranger to loss.
Thirteen years ago, on March 29, 2002, Naftali's eldest brother, Lt. Yitzchak-Menachem Rosenfeld, 22, was killed in a jeep accident in the Tze'elim Stream, in the Judean Desert. He was a pilot in the IAF.
Yitzhak-Menachem was named after his uncle, Sergeant Yitzhak-Moshe Rosenfeld, who was also killed during his military service, in 1978.