The new Homesh Yeshiva
The new Homesh YeshivaArutz Sheva

The Homesh Yeshiva has now been moved to its permanent location, Israel National News - Arutz Sheva visited the yeshiva, meeting with its Director-General Shmuel Wendy and Rabbi Ben Shachar, who is a member of the yeshiva's faculty. They did not attempt to conceal, even for a moment, their emotions regarding the process they view as the first step in establishing the yeshiva's full operations in northern Samaria.

According to Wendy, the Homesh Yeshiva was founded 17 years ago, after the Disengagement, with the belief that Homesh will be the beginning of the return to the lands taken during the Disengagement. There were years during which the feeling was one of "banging our heads against the wall," he said, but, "The People of Israel understood that it is worth making the effort, and in the end, the head was stronger than the wall, which did not only crack but broke. The Land of Israel is ours - and we can correct things."

The process of returning to Homesh received a significant boost after the murder of Yehuda Dimentman at the entrance to Homesh. Since then, tens of thousands of Jews have come to Homesh, expressing support and "this added to the great self-sacrifice of the students, which brought about the cancellation of the Disengagement Law, which forbade Jews from visiting Homesh. The Knesset canceled this evil law, and we can be here, and everyone is invited to visit."

The actual founding of the yeshiva took place in a single night during which everyone took part in the project. Now, the yeshiva's founders are looking ahead, towards the other towns in northern Samaria.

Wendy believes that very soon, the yeshiva will expand to include many more students - a great deal more than the fifty students and twenty married students who study in it today. Ahead of the next school year, dozens of twelfth-grade students have already visited the yeshiva, "and the yeshiva can already double itself by next year."

At the place where Yehuda Dimentman was murdered, Wendy tells of a dream he had about a month after the terror attack, and after the march to Homesh. In his dream, Yehuda Dimentman came to him, place a hand on Wendy's shoulder, and said, "You don't know how happy they are above, from what is happening here below." This dream gave him support and offered the strength needed to continue the work and construction.

"Immediately after the terror attack, a new grandson was born to his parents. We held the march with 15,000 marchers, marching in the rain. Yehuda's father came back with shoes filled with mud, and with those he came to the circumcision the next day - with the same mud from the place where Yehuda was murdered," Wendy said.

Watch the Hebrew video here: