Tearful teachers mourn loss of ’priceless students of pure gold’
SHELLY PAZ and TOVAH LAZAROFF
Wrapped in prayer shawls, the bodies of eight slain yeshiva students were laid out on stretchers in the stone plaza outside the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem on Friday morning.
The night before, Ala Abu Dhaim, from the city’s Jebl Mukaber neighborhood, killed them and wounded nine of their classmates in the yeshiva’s library.
Under the beating sun, thousands filled the adjacent street, while others squeezed onto nearby rooftops and porches to bid farewell to the young men.
"These priceless students were the best of the best, pure gold. Each one of them had unique and different good values in Torah studies, at work, in charity and kindness," a tearful yeshiva head Rabbi Ya’acov Shapira said.
"These gentle souls were slaughtered in a massacre that constitutes the continuation of the Hebron Massacre [of 1929], and the blood of the prophet is still boiling," Shapira said in a eulogy carried into the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood via loudspeakers.
"The heads of the nation understand that the heart of the nation is not glad. It is time we understand that an internal and external struggle is taking place in front of our eyes. The time for a spiritual change has come and it will happen only with a strong, good and believing leadership,‘ Shapira said. ’We are all in need of mercy, the entire country. And you, the [slain] holy ones, pray for all of us and give good counsel to the families, to the anguished friends."
Rabbi Yerahmiel Weiss also cried as he spoke of the young victims; he knew six of them personally.
"We live in our limited and small world and we keep presenting our questions to God, and He answers us with a godly depth and the answers are so hard and painful! My heart is dead inside after such a horrible sleepless night. How can one eulogize at Rosh Hodesh [the beginning of the Hebrew month of] Adar, not one student, not two or three, but six students?" he said.
"They say it is a mitzva to be happy when the month of Adar begins, and in what joy, God, you took these saints, out of their Torah studies you took them… and left us in great want," Weiss continued.
"Let me tell you, God, who you took from us,"said Weiss."Yehonadav [Haim Hirschfeld, 19, from Kochav Hashahar], who graduated from the yeshiva, whose godly kindness, innocent perfection, talent, good mental strength, simplicity and inner beauty made him sanctify himself to you.
"You took Yochai [Lifshitz, 18, from Jerusalem], from us, a diligent student. You took Segev [Peniel Avihail, 15, from Neveh Daniel], who excelled in Torah.
"You took Yonatan [Yitzhak Eldar, 16, from Shilo] from us, a pleasant young man who loved to sit in the library, from where you took him.
"You took Avraham [David Moses, 16, from Efrat], with whom I sat for a long talk only two days ago. He was an honest student and a gentle soul who amazed us with his singing as he read from the Torah.
"And you took Neria [Cohen, 15, from Jerusalem], the youngest in the group, who comes from a great family and whose light we already miss."
Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar said:"Only after looking into their holy eyes does it become clear what pre-messianic pangs means. This is a terrible blow."We have paid with our best boys, who were sitting by their Talmuds… Torah was their entire world.
"They are the roses that have been picked," he said, in a reference to Song of Songs.
Turning to the bereaved relatives, Amar said: "You should know, dear families, that this is a mourning of the entire House of Israel, as one person and one heart, crying as one for the dreadful calamity that has befallen us. We will not be cruel at this hour when we are faced with such a great crisis, and we will rise up to cast away strife to further increase Torah study."
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski also addressed the mourners:"Lord, nations have invaded Your land, desecrated Your holy hall. Eight of our sweet loved ones, may God avenge their blood, who only yesterday were living among us, are no longer with us. Their lives were cut short by lowly murderers… but the murderer did not wish to target them alone, but rather each and every one of us, each and every resident of the holy city of Jerusalem.
"For many years our enemies have been trying to ruin our lives, to harm us as much as they can. Jerusalem has paid heavily in blood, and the long, long list was joined last night by our eight sons."
The victims were buried in separate ceremonies.
Mourners parted from Lifshitz at the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem. Cohen and Avihail were laid to rest at the Mount of Olives cemetery, also in the capital. Moses was buried in Kfar Etzion, Eldar in Shilo and Hirschfeld in Kochav Hashahar. The funeral of Ro’i Roth, 18, took place in his hometown of Elkana. Doron Meherete, 26, was buried in his home city of Ashdod.
The Mercaz Harav Yeshiva is the flagship seminary of the national religious movement, with graduates that include leading rabbis and IDF officers. It was founded in 1924 by the first chief rabbi of Mandatory Palestine, Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook. In September 2007 the yeshiva lost its long-time leader, former chief rabbi Avraham Shapira.
Mar. 9, 2008 -- Leah Moses did not immediately assume the worst when she heard of Thursday night’s attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem where her stepson, Avraham David, 16, studied.
"I thought, ’Oh, he is going to call to say he is fine,‘ Leah told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday night. ’I couldn’t take it in."
Avraham David Moses had spent the previous Shabbat with them in Efrat, and on Sunday he did his laundry and left for school, as he had done many times before.
Her concern grew, Leah Moses said, as the minutes went by without word from Avraham David.
Her husband, Naftali, manned the phone and another stepson, Elisha Dan, 11, stayed glued to the news. He kept giving her updates.
Naftali tried Avraham David’s cellphone, his friends and the yeshiva, but either he couldn’t get through, or he didn’t learn anything.
The only response they received was, "We do not know where he is," Leah said. With each fruitless call their hopes diminished, she said.
Eventually, Naftali traveled to a hospital in Jerusalem and then to the yeshiva, where he learned that his son was one of eight students killed by a terrorist in the school library, according to a neighbor, Natan Siegel.
Many of the victims were friends, said Siegel. In Avraham David’s bar mitzva album there is a photograph of him with another victim, Segev Peniel Avihail, 15.
Both Siegel and Leah said Avraham David had been a special child.
"He was a really terrific kid. He was very pious. He was very good with his younger brothers and sisters. He was very involved in learning," Leah said.
Although he was only in high school, he already was skilled at reading the weekly Torah portion in synagogue.
Avraham David was the oldest of two boys from Naftali’s first marriage, with Rivkah, and had two half-sisters from his father’s second marriage.
From his mother, Rivkah, who is married to David Moriah, he has two half-brothers and six stepbrothers.
His mother, Rivkah, made aliya from New Hampshire and his father came from Long Island, New York, but Avraham David was born in Israel and his identity as an Israeli was very important to him, said Leah.
"He took very seriously the development of good behavior. He would study about being kind and he would walk into the house and help with the dishes,‘ she said. ’If we would gossip at the table, he would politely tell us to stop."
She spoke of an incident a few years ago when Avraham David gave his little sister his ice cream because she was crying for it.
"He said, ’I can’t eat it if she is crying,’‘ Leah recalled. ’I never forgot that."
In the Kochav Hashahar settlement, neighbor Haya Meir spoke with the Post on Saturday night in glowing terms about Yehonadav Haim Hirschfeld, 19, who had been her neighbor. He was the kind of student who always asked the thoughtful question and had a good answer in class, she said.
Hirschfeld was the fifth oldest in a family of 13 children. He himself was involved with children in the community and had worked as a counselor in the Ariel youth movement. Even after he left the movement he kept up his relationships with the kids, Meir said.
She was with the Hirschfeld family when they heard of the attack on Thursday night. They also tried to call and couldn’t get through, not to him and not to his friends, she said.
At first they chalked it up to the lack of reception that often occurs after an attack. Their hopes rose when someone said that they had seen their son alive.
But it wavered as time passed and there was still no word. They sent their son-in-law to the yeshiva but then they did not hear from him. In the middle of the night, a rabbi from the area came to their home to tell them the bad news, Meir said.
Yehonadav was buried the next day in Kochav Hashahar.
In Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul cemetery, friends, teachers and relatives walked behind the hearse carrying the body of Yochai Lifshitz, 18.
They crowded around the grave, as his father, Tuvia, said a few parting words to his son.
"Yochai, we want to tell you one thing, thank you. Thank you for everything you gave us during your time with us," he said.
On the Mount of Olives overlooking the Old City, friends and family said good-bye to Avihail, 15, from Neveh Daniel.
They were joined by people who did not know Avihail but who also wanted to pay their last respects.
Segev Peniel Avihail was the first-born of Rabbi Elyashiv Avihail, the rabbi of Telem and Ad-Olam. His grandfather, Rabbi Eliahu Avihail, is well-known due to his work locating and bringing to Israel "lost Jewish tribes" such as the Bnei Menashe from India.
The young Avihail survived a shooting attack several years ago.
"Segev was a gift that was given to me and to the entire family for 15 years. He had a pure heart, was a good son and exceptionally diligent in his studies. He loved his brothers and was close to his father," Avihail’s uncle Yair Tzukerman said.
"Segev was a person who helped everybody constantly. He was always searching for a way to make things better. He loved to study Gemara and was very good at it. When he was informed that he had gotten into the yeshiva he was the happiest person, he proudly ran and told everyone he was accepted," said Ya’akov Tzukerman (no relation), Segev’s friend.
Neria Cohen, 15, from Jerusalem, was also buried on the Olives Mount, in the priests’ section.
"He is God’s light, a perfect soul who connects to God all the time. He was a true son of the Torah and spent every moment with his study companion. When he understood the essence of the Torah, he was filled with happiness and joy," Rabbi Ze’ev Schor, one of Neria’s teachers, said over his grave.
