Unpacked: A Walker Returns Home

Hi everyone,

As many of you know, it was a hard weekend for us in Israel. A gunman, named Ala Abu Dhaim, entered a Yeshiva- a Jewish house of study, and killed 8 boys while they were learning Torah.

I just wanted to share a story that was sent to me by my friend Sharon:

Every morning I take the 35 bus to work. It’s a quick ride and usually takes no more than 12 minutes. The third stop after I get on is directly in front of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav (where the shooting took place). This morning I found myself a bit anxious, unsure of what I was going to see as we passed by.

As I looked around, I saw death notices pasted all over the street and flowers that had been brought lined the entrance to the Yeshiva. When the bus pulled up to the stop, the driver shut off the engine and stood.

With tears in his eyes he told everyone sitting on the bus that one of the boys killed on Thursday night was his nephew. He asked if everyone on the bus would mind if he spoke for a few minutes in memory of his nephew and the other boys that were killed. After seeing heads nod all over the bus he began to speak.

With a clear and proud voice, he spoke beautifully about his nephew and said that he was a person who was constantly on the lookout for how to help out anyone in need. He was always searching for a way to make things better. He loved learning, and had a passion for working out the intricacies of the Talmud. He was excited to join the army in a few years, and wanted to eventually work in informal education.

As he continued to speak, I noticed that the elderly woman sitting next to me was crying. I looked into my bag, reached for a tissue and passed it to her. She looked at me and told me that she too had lost someone she knew in the attack. Her neighbor’s child was another one of the boys killed. As she held my hand tightly, she stood up and asked if she too could say a few words in memory of her neighbor.

She spoke of a young man filled with a zest for life. Every Friday he would visit her with a few flowers for Shabbat and a short word of Torah that he had learned that week in Yeshiva.”
______________

…Just some notes from a country where we’re all family.

May listening merit us peace.

Yannai

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe via RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 11:07 am and is filed under Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.