Rabbi Avigdor Hayut, whose family lost their son Yedidya in the Meron disaster, on Thursday morning celebrated the tefillin-laying (phylacteries-laying) ceremony for a different son.
The tefillin-laying ceremony is celebrated prior to the bar mitzvah, allowing the boy to become familiar with tefillin and adjust to the responsibility before he turns 13.
Thursday's ceremony was held in former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef's study hall.
In November 2022, after a baby son was born to him following the tragedy, Rabbi Hayut told 103 FM Radio on Tuesday morning, "It's very emotional, it's a great joy. For us this is not the closing of a circle, but it does give us the goal we set for ourselves: to continue living."
"I remember that on the weekend [following the disaster], we had a conversation with those who came to comfort us, and among them were bereaved parents. We told ourselves that they gave us great strength, but some of them looked like living headstones. We decided that for us, it would not be that way - that we would continue to build our lives, together with the memory of Yedidya. And recently, we merited a great gift."
Rabbi Hayut, who himself was severely injured in the Meron disaster, shared: "They evacuated me in moderate to severe condition, and five minutes afterwards I arrived at the hospital not breathing. I am alive against all odds. I understood that G-d sent me a mission."
"There is no such thing as recovering - there is continuing life with this. We try, with the power of our strong faith, to live with this. It's a completely different life."