
ZAKA founder and former chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav left a letter explaining his decision to end his life.
The attempted suicide occurred Thursday morning at Meshi-Zahav's residence in Givat Ze'ev. First responders arriving at the scene succeeded in resuscitating the elderly man, transferring him to Shaare Zedek Medical Center. He is currently in stable but critical condition.
When police officers arrived at the scene, they found a letter which Meshi-Zahav had written, explaining why he had chosen to end his life. The letter was confiscated by police and transferred to investigators.
A photograph of the handwritten letter showed that it contained the following lines:
"I am sorry.
My punishment I have received already.
Try to remember the good that I did;
try to always remember what I forgot:
'There is an Eye that sees, an Ear that hears, and all your deeds are written in a Book.' (Ethics of the Fathers, 2:1 - ed.)
My love always,
and I am very humiliated,
Yehuda."

One of Meshi-Zahav's neighbors told Walla! that he "was devastated, he thought that they would ruin him in the inquiry this evening."
Professor Ofer Merin, Director-General of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, said that Meshi-Zahav "had arrived in Shaare Zedek's trauma room after he was found in critical condition in his home, following an act of suicide." He added that Meshi-Zahav had been brought to Shaare Zedek during Magen David Adom's (MDA) ongoing attempts at resuscitating him.
"His condition stabilized in the trauma room. Right now he is unconscious and on a respirator, with signs of life."
Prof. Merin also said that hospital staff "estimate that damage was caused," but "we cannot estimate how much."
"I do not think that we will be able to give an exact estimate of his condition within the next few hours.
"Right now he is in the ICU, and we need to treat the immediate damage caused at the time, until they began resuscitating him, and until the resuscitation succeeded, and that's what the staff is busy with right now."