Arik Chicheportiche, father of Reuven Chicheportiche, who fell on Simchat Torah morning defending the settlement of Pri Gan, tells about the year that has passed since the massacre on last Simchat Torah and the complexity during the holiday's joy.
"I visited the Gvurah Forum Sukkah last night to meet the people who have many questions and are looking for our support, the bereaved families, because of the long war."
Reuven was a soldier in an elite IDF unit, established a family in the settlement of Shlomit, and was the commander of the town emergency squad. On Simchat Torah morning in 5794, after receiving a call for help from the settlement of Pri Gan, he left his home to save the residents of Pri Gan and was killed in action fighting the invading terrorists.
"In the past year since our son's fall, we underwent a long process, first of all, to understand that what happened to us really happened. Initially, we were in denial and then we moved forward and tried to feel normalcy. All of our life's values changed completely. We no longer give importance to what we gave before October 7th. We believe the son is in a good place. He was a special child and we are proud of him and trying to reconnect the family and support his wife and the four orphaned children who returned to live in the house he built in Shlomit with his own hands."
According to him, "No soldier fell in vain. The Lord puts an address on every bullet. A process we do not understand. In the end, we will win. The Lord wants to eliminate the evil in the world and the impurity they bring to the world, and they fall and are slowly eliminated. Some call it war, I call it a process of cleansing. In the end, Israel will shine to the whole world. After Gaza and Lebanon, Iran's turn will come too."
When asked if he could rejoice on Simchat Torah when he would mark a year since his son's death, the father responds: "Before the son's fall, I rejoiced with the joy of the Torah with the family. The joy with the Torah has not changed and will not change. At the 'Ma'aseh Nisim' synagogue led by Rabbi Lopez in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood in Jerusalem, they asked me if I wanted the holiday joy and dances to be reduced this year. I said "Certainly not - I even want to be the one to conclude the Torah (an honor traditionally known as 'the groom of the Torah')."
"I feel there is some correction of last year's Simchat Torah holiday, and I will complete the Torah. My other children will be at Simchat Torah in the settlement of Shlomit with Reuven's widow and children. They want to dance with the residents of the settlement, and that is their victory over the fact that last year, the dances with the Torah scroll were canceled due to the war. This year they will celebrate the holiday joy in full force with courage and victory," he concludes.