(Eighth in the Salt of the Earth series about the lives of IDF soldiers who fell in the Swords of Iron War)
What should I do? he asked the heroes buried at Mount Herzl. Should I stay in yeshiva for several more years or should I enlist now?
We do not know what answers Yonatan Brand Hy”d heard in his heart, but we know that he sat facing the graves of IDF heroes trying to imagine what their advice would be, and that in the end, he decided to enlist. And so Yonatan became Major (Res.) Yonatan Yosef Brand, an armored fighter in the 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade.
The person that Yonatan was comes across in the message he wrote on his phone right before entering the Gaza Strip: “My soul thirsts for the living G-d. When will I come before Him? In the name of the People of Israel, I am going out to an existential war for the Jewish People’s survival. Here O Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One.”
His father remembered how Yonatan, whose life revolved around acts of chessed (kindness to others) had told him that he felt compelled to help erase the humiliation of October 7th and restore the People of Israel's honor.
Brave, introspective, always aware of others’ needs, Yonatan, a powerhouse in every way, loved to talk deeply about burning issues for hours, loved volunteering to help others every minute he could spare, and found time to travel, to teach rappelling and to fill notebooks with wisdom that will be quoted, read and reread by those who knew him for many years to come. The many facets of his life and interests seemed diametrically opposed, but they all meshed into an idealistic and integrated whole that formed the admired and beloved friend mourned by so many.
His fellow physiotherapy students at Ariel University wear a pin with Yonatan’s picture on the pockets of their medical uniforms, his fellow rappelling guides held a memorial evening and named a climbing area for him, two lookout points are named for his love of trekking in Eretz Yisrael, a Sefer Torah his parents hope to dedicate in his memory will symbolize his love of Torah. Perhaps the most poignant of all was the response to the news of one of the blind and developmentally challenged people he helped at the Light and Torch hostel where he worked and volunteered: “He was my friend, he was my friend.”
Mothers know their children best and Yonatans’ mother Yocheved, a well-known Jerusalem teacher, longingly remembers her loving, considerate son saying, when he saw how much work she put into cooking for Shabbat: “Go, Ima, lie down and I will clean the kitchen. Go ahead, leave it to me” - and no matter whether he had just returned from the army, from leading a trek, rappelling on the sheer face of a cliff, volunteering with the mentally challenged blind or delivering food packages to the needy, that is exactly what he did. “American families he led on tours wrote us condolences, said they can never forget him. He was a natural leader, an organizer, the life of the party and the brother who took care of his siblings, always ready to offer a shoulder to lean on, to help carry whatever burden they wished to share.”
“Before he went to India, he wanted to take me out and found a lecture by an autistic child’s father that we went to together. One birthday, he wrote to me that although the family had bought me a mixer, ‘the best gift I can give you is to tell you about my inner world, how you are an anchor for me and play such a special part in my life.’ I did not show that message to anyone until the Shiva,” she says wiping away a tear.
Yonatan was Rabbi Chanan and Yocheved Brand’s third child, born on Israel Independence Day, the 5th of Iyar, which was Memorial Day the year he died (Memorial Day is not observed on a Sunday if it falls on that day). His parents remember an energetic child who literally climbed the walls (later he did just that as a rappelling counselor), was highly intelligent but not very interested in studying, a successful youth group counselor who began packing and delivering food to the needy each week at age 15.
He and Yedidya Eliyahu Hy”d were schoolmates at Jerusalem's Morasha Torani elementary school where Rabbi Yoram Eliyahu, Yedidya Hy”d’s father taught them both. Yonatan switched to Har Nof for JHS, continued at Netiv Meir Yeshiva High School and then Yeshivat Shavei Chevron in the City of the Patriarchs. He became an IDF tank commander, trekked in India and Nepal after his service and then enrolled at Ariel University to study physiotherapy because he wanted to help people in pain.
The two boys’ paths crossed again in a shared family tragedy, when on the way to his former pupil Yonatan Brand’s funeral on Erev Shabbat (after a terrorist shot into Yonatan's tank and the ammo inside exploded and killed him), Rabbi Yoram Eliyahu received the news of his own son Yedidya’s death in Gaza. The Brands rose from Shiva and made a condolence visit to the Eliyahu family. The boys lie next to each other on Mount Herzl.
Yonatan wrote his thoughts in notebooks his parents found. They put out a limited edition of selected entries, bearing in mind Yonatan’s own words on the first pages: “Perhaps it is better that no one ever reads this because if they do it means that I am alive and they are snooping or that I have died - and then it’s fine to read it. Just think carefully about who is allowed to read or whatever is made public so that no one is hurt. I don’t know if people will think much about it, but if they do, I want them to know that I was a perfectly ordinary person, nothing special, not like the way everyone praises a person who has died. It is fine to stress their good points but don’t overdo it. “
Here are some of his thoughts: (Disclosure: It was hard for me to choose from the wisdom and faith found on every page, also because I was blinded as my eyes were filled with tears)
“When I fill out all these medical forms so as to donate blood, and check the ‘no’ box to all the problems they ask about, I don’t pay attention to the wonder of being healthy...” Relating to a problem with one knee, he continues: “G-d, do what is best for my people and grant me the strength and values to accept every situation with love. I really want to guard my people and be a combat soldier, to guard over my friends who are learning Torah and will continue to learn, with G-d’s help we will succeed. I will donate a kidney after the army, maybe in honor of my wedding (she will have to agree)...”
“I try to be proud of my Jewishness and my mitzva observance, to listen to those talking to me, to preserve the truth of my faith, to ask the IDF rabbi and my yeshiva rabbis halakhic questions, not to avoid doing chores because I am a soldier, to continue growing in knowledge and even more in spirit.”
“What kind of commander do I want to be? Sometimes I will have to keep my soldiers at a distance, but I must always preserve a happy atmosphere, not let petty things take up my time, try to explain complexities to myself and to them and how to deal with things they don’t understand. I can look at my commanders and decide what I want to do as they did and what bothered me as a soldier: shouting, anger, lack of sincerity, too much talk.”
“What makes up a person’s soul? How is it that things change so much? At what speed is everything happening here? Sometimes I feel that the world is a giant Ferris wheel in an amusement park, constantly turning, or more accurately most of the time, it also stops once in a while …for maintenance, but it turns and turns. And every person is on it, no one can claim fear of heights and avoid being on it. Life is a wheel and you turn with it; from the minute you are born you revolve with it and have no choice in the matter.”
“I believe with perfect faith in the good that is in me and in my ability to improve and make progress all the time. I have great aspirations. G-d, I will try to accept everything You ordain with love.”
And while in Uman, perhaps a prescient message to those he left behind:
“’Uman on Rosh Hashanah is the height of everything. Whoever was with me on Rosh Hashanah can be sure that he will be happy all year…’ said the tzaddik. No one is naïve enough to think that someone can promise that he will be happy all year, but that he will have the strength to be happy. Sometimes you won’t be happy, sometimes the time doesn’t suit being happy, but never forget that you have the ability to be happy and that is a great thing.”
At the one-year memorial service for Yonatan Hy”d at Mt. Herzl, a Jerusalem venue that has seen one young man after another interred there since October 7, 2023, accepting them all in noble silence, Yocheved Brand spoke from the heart to her beloved son:
“A year without you. Such an unnatural and incomprehensible reality. Today I know that the expression ‘time does its work’ refers to the hole in my heart that is deeper with time, the longings that are greater, and to the pain that accompanies my every step on a trip that seems endless.
“This past year I learned a great many new things about you, myself, and our family.
“It is hard to describe what you were and the place you have in my heart – then, and even more, now. The separation from you enabled me to view you from a different perspective, an overview, to recognize that as much as I thought I knew you well, I didn’t really understand everything. You were a unique soul that was raised in an ordinary home, a celestial being that tried to find its place in this world, this “alma deshikra” – a world filled with lies – how you tried to connect to truth, reach the deepest possible levels of understanding…
“This constant search was always with you, but it did not keep you from living a full life, with every minute accounted for and used for action and giving.
"First to yourself, in contemplation and solitude, writing, introspection, investing in things you like to do, in ties with family and friends – and of course, in an unbelievable and immeasurable level of caring for others, as the number of circles you touched bear witness.
“I take comfort in hoping that things are clear to you now and that you have attained the tranquility you so wanted.
“I also learned about myself this year.
“Up to now, I was the daughter of Holocaust survivors, the second generation after the Holocaust, the story of my family mirroring the story of our people. I was a kind of observer. Your death in battle has bonded me to this story in blood.
“In one of your notebooks you wrote that your heart’s core is what guides you, the core of everything. You hear it speaking to you and listen. You are not in this world anymore, but that core, that nucleus, lives within me and walks with me. I cannot explain that. As time passed, I learned to communicate with you in a different fashion, constantly, soundlessly, without my lips moving, and I hear you answer. I feel such mercy and gentleness on your part.
“This year I learned about bereavement…I learned that bereavement is like a stone thrown into a pool that creates ripples that keep spreading, that influences so many circles, has so many outcomes that influence our lives directly or indirectly. Every feeling is empowered, every disappointment is deeper, every pain connects to loss – and I am sure they will only become stronger.
“I learned a great deal about our family’s strength. We went through so much this year. Often, I think of the family reality without you and imagine how you would blend in, what part you would take on our journey, and I wonder how you can not be here to share this crushing experience…
“There is also room for gratitude despite the pain. Thank you, Yonatan, for 28 years of raising you and of you elevating us, years that give us the strength to continue now that you have left us.
“Thank you for the warm words you said to me during your life and for the words you wrote: ‘Ima , you cannot imagine how much power I draw from you and how significant you are to me..Thank you, Ima, for all the faith and support you give me so naturally from your giant heart.’
“You sent me a gift card to a cafe for my birthday and I suggested we use it together. You were so happy and said you cannot refuse, but, sadly, we did not manage to go – still, the words you said and especially the way you said them are still with me...
“We buried you on a Friday. On the 18th of Cheshvan, 3 hours before Shabbat Parashat Vayera which tells of the Binding of Isaac. During the shiva, another bereaved mother told me that there was no angel to cry ‘Do not lay your hands on the child!’ for her son. But even had that angel come, you and the soldiers with you would not have listened, you were willing to sacrifice yourselves to sanctify G-d’s Name. And like the Akeida that our Father Abraham went through, we will accept your Akeida and that of all the hundreds of soldiers who fell in this war, as a test given us by G-d, and we will get through it.
“Tragically, more souls join you almost daily. You are with holy and pure spirits who shine with heavenly light. Every time I hear a soldier eulogized, I feel that they are talking about you. About souls who transcended bodily limits. How much holiness there is on Mount Herzl, on this plot of land!
“People said that it is lucky that you did not leave a widow and orphans. I cannot argue with that, but I cannot forget your efforts to find a partner who would reach the depths in your soul, how much you wanted to find that one and only, to build a powerful relationship.
“You wrote that you have storerooms with pails overflowing with love and I believe that they are being poured before the Heavenly throne and that you are praying for everyone, for your parents who take you everywhere with them, your grandmother who sees in every physiotherapy session her grandson who should have been the one to administer it , the wounded and those held hostage. You are praying for those making decisions to be blessed with wisdom and courage, for unity to be real and not just a cliché despite our differences. You wrote ‘we will win, but it will take a long time.’ Would you believe it would take so much time?
“My dearly beloved Yonatan, may we be worthy of you.”
(Eng. subtitles: Rochel Sylvetsky, translation Yarden Gabai, technical assistance)
Rochel Sylvetsky is Senior Consultant, Op-ed & Judaism Editor at Arutz Sheva and a member of the board of the Knesset Channel and the Orot Yisrael College. Since the start of the Swords of Iron War, she volunteers at the OneFamlyTogether organization which reaches out to every terror victim and bereaved family. It is where the idea of a Salt of the Earth series on fallen soldiers was born.