Major Rabbi Menachem Novik, Rabbi of the Shaked Battalion, recounts today (Tuesday) a conversation that opened a connection between him and Sergeant Ido Zano, a 20-year-old from Yehud-Monosson, a combat medic who was killed in action in Gaza yesterday.
"A little over a year ago, I met Ido at Sde Teiman. They had just joined the battalion and were preparing to enter Gaza," Rabbi Novik recalls.
"He approached me hesitantly and asked if he could talk to me. Of course, I answered. He tearfully shared that for three years he had been able to enjoy observing the Sabbath, but now, with all the stress of the war, he started using his phone on the Sabbath, which was really breaking him," Novik describes the encounter.
He adds, "I reassured him and told him that God is so happy with his effort and it is no small feat, the journey he has made, and that he should not break but strive to maintain what he can and strengthen himself as best as he can. Right then, I had a pamphlet of Rabbi Nachman's 'Restoring the Soul' and I opened for him a passage showing that even if a person reaches a low place, but it bothers and pains him, God is very, very happy with that. I gave him the booklet and wrote him a blessing. He was very happy and said how lucky he was that he summoned the courage to approach me."
"Since then, he was happy to meet me every time, and I would ask him warmly how he was, how things were going, etc. Today, he was killed on his way out of Gaza. My heart is broken. May God avenge his blood and the blood of his other holy comrades," Rabbi Novik concluded with grief.