Hundreds paid final respects on Wednesday to 14-year-old Yosef Eisental, who was struck and killed by a bus at a haredi demonstration in Jerusalem on Tuesday against IDF conscription.
The funeral procession left the boy's yeshiva, Ohel Torah in the Ramot neighborhood, where his father also teaches, and he was laid to rest at the Har Hamenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem.
Yosef's father, Rabbi Shmuel Eisental, eulogized him: "Everyone loved you; it was so pleasant to be in your company. Oh, how we would wait for Shabbat when Yossi was home. Your body won't be here, but your soul will be with us always."
He added in tears: "Our Yossi, you are going up before the Throne of G-d, you are the closest one could be. Rip open the gates of Heaven and advocate for me, so that G-d gives me the strength to withstand the test, and to come out stronger from it. Advocate for her so that the Holy One Blessed Be He gives her the strength to withstand the test."
The father added, "I promise you, Yossi, that we will teach him who you were and what you were. He has who to learn from. Rip the gates of Heaven open for the entire family, all of your great grandfathers, your special grandmothers, for all the yeshiva students. Advocate for everyone, for the entire people of Israel."
Rabbi Uriel Eisental, the rabbi of the Ramot Gimmel neighborhood and Yosef's grandfather, lamented: "Who can accept such a decree? It says: 'All G-d’s ways are just; A faithful G-d, never false, True and upright indeed.' I don't exactly know all the details of what happened there, but some say that 'a savage beast devoured him, Joseph was torn by a beast.' As the Talmud says, the martyrs of the kingdom, no creature can stand in their presence."