Honoring Eight Martyred Talmidim, With One Heart
From the B'Lev Echad (With One Heart) website: "One year ago, the Jewish people suffered a staggering blow. On the evening of Rosh Chodesh Adar II 5768, a gunman burst into Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav. For fourteen agonizing minutes, the sweet sounds of joyous Torah study were silenced by the deafening sound of gunfire."
A friend just sent me the following letter, reminding me of the upcoming yartzheit and beseeching everyone she knows to mark that day by standing together in unity and showing love for all Jews, however diverse their backgrounds and choices. Resources are available on the B'Lev Echad website. [read on...]
Hi everyone,
Please accept my apologies in advance for this mass email. The yarzheit for the 8 precious Jewish yeshivah boys who were so brutally murdered in the Mercaz HaRav Yeshivah is coming up this coming Tuesday, February 24th. It hardly seems like a year to me. It blows my mind that a year has passed since this horrific tragedy. It seems like only yesterday that I heard about this tragedy, and I had to get on a cruise shortly after. It seemed surreal and cruel to me at the time that I should be packing for a stupid cruise while 8 Jewish families in Jerusalem were burying their teenage sons and brothers, that 8 Jewish mothers and fathers were in mourning for their slaughtered children.
Of course, a year passed, and gradually I forgot about them. Other than an attempt to listen to an occasional shiur in their memory, I went on with life. I was busy with job-hunting, working, studying, tutoring, useless attempts at dating, watching the stock market crumble, debating the Presidential elections (USA and Israel), and lots of other oh-so-important activities. There were resumes to send out, along with baby cards.
And then it hit me that a year had passed since the tragedy, and what really had I done to preserve the memory of these precious Jewish souls. The answer was not all that much. So I am in their memory planning to read the source materials for each day that are on the web site at www.blevechad.com.
I'm also urging every Jew to take a look at this web site. Even if you can't understand the sources because you haven't been to yeshivah, or you don't know Hebrew, you can still mark their memory on Tuesday. You can learn about the attack, about the boys, even visit the yeshivah web site at www.mercaz.org. You can say a prayer in Hebrew or English. The participation in this mitzvah should NOT be limited to the Orthodox world, in my opinion.
Most importantly, in my opinion, it should be a day for all Jews to show unity, achdus, and ahavas Yisrael, or loving every Jew. That means loving the Orthodox Jew if you never go to shul and don't keep kosher, and loving the secular Jew if you will only daven in an Orthodox shul. It means loving the Jew who voted for McCain (horrible!!) if you love Obama, and loving the Jew who voted for Obama (how could they?) if you were a McCain fan. It means loving the Jew who supports Likud or religious Zionism if you support Labor, and loving the Jew who supports Labor or Meretz if you are for Likud or religious Zionism.
You are welcome to share your thoughts with me.
With love,
Rebecca Witonsky