Photo Feature: Erez Levanon Laid to Rest

Amidst thick fog, the cracking voice of the young son of Erez Levanon was heard reciting Kaddish, the prayer of mourning, for his father.







The heavens lowered to earth, enveloping the Gush Etzion cemetery in fog as rain pounded down upon those saying goodbye to Levanon, who was murdered while praying in the forest near his home.



“Erez was the most peaceful man I have ever known,” said a former student at the Bat Ayin Yeshiva as hundreds marched on foot from Bat Ayin to the nearby community of Kfar Etzion, where the cemetery is located. “He would go every night to recite Tikkun Hatzot in the forest across the valley over there.”





Though press reports said a “settler was found stabbed to death near the Arab village of Beit Omar,” Levanon was in fact just a couple hundred yards from his home when two teenage Arabs sneaked up behind him as he was deep in prayer, slashing his throat and stomach with knives.

His funeral was attended by Breslov hassidim, residents of Gush Etzion, Jews from hilltop communities, redemption rock musicians and the full cast of the various Bayit Yehudi (Jewish House) soul centers that have sprouted up across India in recent years thanks to Erez and his circle of friends. He himself manned such houses in recent summers.



A song Erez composed – one of many – was sang by a close friend of Levanon’s as his body lay wrapped in a prayer shawl before his open grave. The song was prefaced with these words:



“I am about to say something very un-Erez-like, though it is the truth, which is what Erez was all about. Erez died, and we believe that G-d’s actions flow from goodness and that there is a larger picture. But Erez did not die from Cancer or Diabetes. Erez was murdered for being a Jew in the Land of Israel - by Arabs. Vengeance is in order. We are currently under a government that does not make it possible at this time. But we will not forget, and the time will indeed come.”



The words to the song Erez had composed are from the Shoshanat Yaakov prayer said following the reading of Megillat Esther (the Scroll of Esther) on the upcoming Purim festival.



“To make known that all who place hope in You shall not be put to shame,” the words echoed amidst the sound of heavy rain. “Nor shall all those who trust in You be disgraced forever.”







The unspoken next line of the song is, “Cursed be Haman who sought to destroy me; blessed be Mordechai the Jew.”  Mordechai was Levanon’s middle name.