Around seventy thousand people turned out in the pouring rain on Monday, to pay their final respects to Rabbi Chaim Druckman ztz"l, who passed away earlier this week. Israel National News spoke with Rabbi Dr. Yona Goodman, the national director of education for Bnei Akiva yeshivas and ulpanot, who stressed the extent of the tribute paid to Rabbi Druckman.
"The number of people here is an expression of how Rabbi Druckman touched so many different types of people in Israeli society, and in Religious Zionism," Rabbi Goodman said. "He achieved this because he was only interested in the truth, and he spoke from a warm heart."
In today's deeply divided society, that was an incredible achievement, one which Rabbi Druckman sustained throughout his 90 years of life. "He cared about everyone, no matter what his opinion was," noted Rabbi Goodman. "He exerted himself even on behalf of people who criticized him personally, because all that concerned him was the future of Am Yisrael [the Jewish People] and the future of this country.
"Rabbi Druckman often talked about how things changed over the years, how seventy or eighty years ago, everyone was sure that within a few generations, there would be no religious people left -- and then, somehow the situation flipped. What he didn't talk about was how important he was in making that flipover happen," Rabbi Goodman added.
"His passing is very painful because I felt like his very own child -- and I'm sure there are at least 30 thousand other people here who would say the same. He was unique in his capability to relate to everyone and in the fact that everyone respected him, because everyone knew that he had no personal interests, he simply cared.
"Maybe all of us, together, can somehow fill in for some of the light we have lost today."