March 11, 2008 - This past Friday morning, I attended the memorial service of Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, a 16-year-old boy whom I'd never met, but learned a lot about at his funeral. In the expected heat wave, I joined many

We Jews always observe the revealed mercies amidst the pain.

hundreds who made their way to Shilo (the home of the Biblical Mishkan) in the Binyamin region of Samaria.


Yonatan (may G-d revenge his death) was killed as he studied Torah in the library of a yeshiva in the center of Jerusalem. Only minutes after his murder, the party celebrating the joyful month of Adar with his friends had been scheduled to begin. A rabbi from the yeshiva had spoken of the miracle: if the Arab had entered during the crowded party, the toll of massacre victims could have been much higher. We Jews always observe the revealed mercies amidst the pain.


This Shemitah year, this boy's holy body the sanctified land, which accepted the offering of the Jewish people. A canopy had been erected to protect the family from the burning sun. Hundreds stood silently as the family moaned in hushed tones, "Enough, enough." Someone asked for chairs. They appeared without delay. We could hear the faint sound of dirt falling, one shovelful following the other.


When Rabbi Bin-Nun, the rabbi of Shilo, spoke the silence was complete. I was too mired in my own thoughts to remember his words clearly, but I had thought that an angel was speaking. His tone was calm, reassuring. It was the perceptive voice of one whose own son had been killed in a terror attack nine years ago.


Other rabbis spoke.


"Yonatan used to send SMS messages asking the details of the Jewish law. I would have to look up the answers to some of his questions. He asked good questions."


"Our dear friends the Eldar family, yours are not the cries of fear, or cowardliness. Yours are the tears of heroism, of supreme faith."
 


Each of Yonatan's siblings poured pain. His brother David spoke of the love in the relationship of King David and Yonatan, the son of King Shaul.


"Sometimes we were not as close as we could have been," he said. Standing now at the boy's freshly dug grave, he professed his love for his quiet, younger brother, who was just beginning to blossom into young manhood.


Each speaker appealed to Yonatan to be a courageous intercessor for his family, for the Shilo community, for all of the People of Israel.


Perhaps because I am also a mother, I remember Avital's calm words most clearly. Yonatan's mother told us that his 16th birthday had been the previous week. In their home, birthday festivities are occasionally postponed for various reasons, but last week the family had celebrated with Yonatan on his birthday.


"Today was the date of his Brit Milah. Today the ground was incised so that his pure soul could be returned to his Maker," Avital said.


According to Jewish law, one who is slain, sanctifying G-d's name still wears the bloody clothing he was murdered in. His appearance in the Heavenly court proclaims his rightful place near G-d's throne.


"You are not the type to pound the table, you are too sensitive for that," his mother said. "So when you come before HaShem tell him in your way to rescue your nation, to return the pride to your people."

Perhaps because I am also a mother, I remember Avital's calm words most clearly.



Was she also an angel? Do ordinary people have such complete faith?


Many young men stood with their arms around each other's shoulders. Some women held each other. I looked at my married son, a young father, watching intently. This could have been any of us, any of our children. The Arab did not select a particular target. He wanted to kill Jews. Yonatan was son, brother to all of us.


But it is his family who will agonize daily. I think they will mark their lives by his death. Before Yonatan was killed. After Yonatan was killed.


The wound is still wide open. I pray that they will find Heavenly comfort in the deep ancient well of belief and determination that has kept our nation alive until now. This community, this family is nurtured on love of their homeland and imbued with Torah ethics. They personify the quintessence of life.


In the Beit Medrash at Mercaz HaRav, their son and brother craved truth, humility and more ways to draw closer to the Source of Good. He was unencumbered by concerns of what others were doing. He only craved the center of learning where justice and loving-kindness meet. Yonatan and his friends are the strength and the backbone of our Jewish nation.


None who spoke at the funeral mentioned that eight of our finest, purest children were brutally murdered by an Arab with Israeli citizenship. No one said aloud that the Arab killed them with weapons that had been supplied to the Arabs as part of the Oslo peace process. No one commented that that the Arab's worship of death and its rewards are the antithesis of the love that Yonatan and his friends were imbued with.


But I could not help thinking that the Jews and the Arabs should each receive their just reward. And may G-d revenge Yonatan's death. May he be a courageous intercessor for his family, for the Shilo community, for all of Am Yisrael. And may HaShem return the pride of His people to our Holy Nation.