Memorial Service for Terror attack @ Merkaz HaRav/Yashlatz

Tonight (Thursday, Feb 11th) at the Yeshurun Shul in Jerusalem @ 8:30pm will be the annual memorial service marking 2 years since the Palestinian terror attack at the Merkaz HaRav / Yashlatz Yeshiva High school.

May G-d Avenge their deaths.

Click here to download a factsheet about the attack.

About the 8 Kedoshim Murdered in the terror attack

הקדוש נריה בן יצחק הכהן כהן הי"ד
Neriya (ben HaRav Yitzchak HaCohen) Cohen HY”D, 15, of Jerusalem, a 9th Grader at Yashlatz who was described as “full of boundless joy, enthusiastic about Torah and life, and forever asking questions, striving to understand a sugya to its depth “.

Click here to view a short memorial video of Neriya

הקדוש שגב פניאל בן אלישיב אביחיל הי"ד
Segev Peniel (ben HaRav Elyashiv) Avichail HY”D, 15, of Neve Daniel, a 10th Grader at Yashlatz who was described as “sensitive, serious and diligent, a real Talmid Chacham who was completely devoted to his family and friends”.

Click here to view a short memorial video of Segev

הקדוש יונתן יצחק בן דרור שמואל אלדר הי"ד
Yonatan Yitzchak (ben Dror) Eldar HY”D, 16, of Shilo, a 10th Grader at Yashlatz who was described as “having an incredible love for Torah and especially Halacha, and often the last person to leave the Bet Midrash“.

Click here to view a short memorial video of Yonatan

הקדוש אברהם דוד בן נפתלי מוזס הי"ד
Avraham David (ben Naftali) Moses HY”D, 16, of Efrat, a 10th Grader at Yashlatz who was described as “blessed with a pure neshama, totally honest and with an unparalleled level of scholarship and devotion to his Torah studies“.

Click here to view a short memorial video of Avraham David

הקדוש יוחאי בן טוביה ליפשיץ הי"ד
Yochai (ben HaRav Tuvya) Lifshitz HY”D, 18, of Jerusalem, a 12th Grader at Yashlatz who was described as “incredibly perseverant, diligent and organized who never wasted a second of his day”.

Click here to view a short memorial video of Yochai

הקדוש רועי אהרן בן יעקב רוט הי"ד
Roei Aharon (ben Yaakov) Roth HY”D, 18, of Elkana, in his first year at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav, who was described as “someone truly humble, whose prayer was so devout and genuine that it taught and inspired everyone”.

Click here to view a short memorial video of Roei

הקדוש יונדב חיים בן צמח יהודה הירשפלד הי"ד
Yonadav Chaim (ben Tzemach) Hirshfeld HY”D, 19 of Kochav Hashachar, an alumnus of Yashlatz and in his first year at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav, who was described as “always happy, a ball of energy, extremely intelligent and everyone’s best friend”.

Click here to view a short memorial video of Yonadav

הקדוש דורון בן מקוננט מהרטה הי"ד
Doron (ben Mekonent) Meherete HY”D, 26, of Ashdod, in his tenth year at Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav, who was described as “having a tremendous desire to succeed in Torah, someone with a large heart who loved helping others, and who never got angry”.

Click here to view a short memorial video of Doron

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Call it coincidence, or is that just Jewish Geography?

Yes, after yesterday's terror attack at Kikar Tzahal, everyone was asking, "who is connected to who?"

Well, of course the terrorist came from the same neighborhood as the previous Jerusalem terrorists: Jabel Mukhaber.

And the IDF officer that killed him?

Hold on to your chairs.

Lt. Elad Amar who killed the terrorist is a graduate of the Pirchei Aaron Yeshiva High School in Haifa, and his former commander in the Paratrooper unit where he served before moving over to artillery was none other than... David Shapira - the hero of Mercaz Harav.

Source

Lurker adds:

For those not familiar with the details behind the last four major terror attacks in Jerusalem, the incredible nature of the coincidence that Joe is describing might not be entirely obvious. In each one of these four incidents, the bloodshed was ended by the brave action of a quick-thinking person who happened to be present at the scene of the attack. And in each case, the hero was a dati leumi (religious Zionist) person. That itself is a statistical improbabilty. But the full proportions the improbabilities here only start to become clear once one realizes the direct, single degree-of-separation connections beween each of these four people. Here is a brief connect-the-dots guide:

• David Shapira was a passer-by who, along with Yitzhak Dadon, shot the terrorist in the Merkaz HaRav massacre in Jerusalem on the night of March 6.
  
  
• Moshe Plesser, the passer-by who shot the first bulldozer terrorist in Jerusalem on July 2, is David Shapira's brother-in-law.
  
  
• Yakki Asa-el, the passer-by who shot the second bulldozer terrorist in Jerusalem on July 22, was Moshe Plesser's yeshiva high school teacher.
  
  
• And today, we find out that Elad Amar, who shot the terrorist in the attack last night, served in the Paratrooper unit commanded by David Shapira.
  

I'm not going to attempt to present an explanation of this incredible triple confluence. I will simply note the obvious: That the likelihood of it being random has got to be infintessimally miniscule.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Coincidence? Determination

You connect the dots.

1. Terror attack in Yeshiva Merkaz Harav -- who killed the terrorist? IDF officer on leave, David Shapira.

2. Bulldozer attack in Jaffa St, Jerusalem -- who killed the terrorist? IDF soldier on leave, "M" (he has requested that his name not be published). M is also the brother in law of David Shapira (listed above). Coincidence? Keep reading!

3. 21 days after the first bulldozer attack, there is a SECOND bulldozer attack in Jerusalem near the King David hotel. Who shoots the terrorist first? Civilian Grandfather Yakki Asa-el (also an IDF soldier in the reserves)

My good blogger friend, DoubleTapper just finished a conversation with the first bulldozer attack hero, "M" who was assigned to protect out settlement the past 2 weeks.

Guess who "M"s teacher was in high school?

Today's Hero, Yakki Asa-el.

What do they all have in common?

• Law Abiding Citizens, licensed to carry weapons
• Active IDF soldiers or in the IDF reserves
• Nationalistic, Religiously-observant Jews
• Determination - belief in our purpose of living in Eretz Yisrael.

The media and others may try to defame nationalistic, religious Jews all they want.

Yet at the end of the day, these Jews have been the ones to end the terror attacks without hesitation.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Water and oil - Jews and Arabs in Israel?

On this morning's drive into work, I heard IDF radio personality Razi Barkai interview a resident of the Jerusalem "Jabbel Mukabre" neighborhood about last night's attempt to dismantle the house of the terrorist who shot up the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva a week and half ago.

This person's house came under a barrage of rocks by angry right wing demonstrators,
upset at the Israeli government's refusal to implement its own decision of dismantling the house of the terrorist...and they wanted to carry out the law themselves.

Razi asked the person; "How far do you live from the terrorist's house?"

The person replied, "about 2 kilometers...but the real question you need to ask me is how did a young person who was about to get married, get into the situation where he did this thing"

Razi: "OK, why don't you tell me what were the motives behind the terrorist's attack?"

The person replied: "We are brothers and sisters of the Palestinian nation, and seeing day after day children in Gaza killed by the IDF, he did what he did. And then last night, this large group of settlers came and threw rocks at my house on their way to that person's house. How dare they."

Initial thoughts that came to mind:

1. The Arab interviewee justifies the action of the terrorist because of "seeing day after day [Arab] children killed by the IDF", yet gets all Judge Judy indignant when a crowd wants revenge for seeing yeshiva students killed by a resident of his neighborhood and they throw rocks at his home. Doesn't he see any comparison?

2. Arab kids throw rocks all the time, they are released by the justice system immediately (in the best case that they were even detained)

3. Why did the group throw rocks? They would have been far more effective if they just marched into the neighborhood and held signs: "We demand the eviction of terrorists and their supporters" That would have conveyed their message just as clearly.

Initial reports right after the terror attack at Merkaz HaRav (which I personally heard on IDF radio and Israel Radio channel 2) that the terrorist was a bus driver, employed by the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva. Within 24 hours this was denied by Merkaz HaRav. Some have commented to me that they think he did work there, but Merkaz HaRav didn't want to admit it, so they denied it.

And then...one of the foremost Gedolim and poskim of our generation, R' Chaim Kanievsky formally announces that one should not hire Arabs...and definitely not in yeshivot....for it's a matter of life and death...and we are at war with them.

No distinction was made between Israeli Arab and Palestinian Arab (the terrorist who attacked Merkaz HaRav was an Israeli Arab).

Rafi G. asks the same question that I thought of; why is it suddenly forbidden to hire Arabs, yet the Ultra Orthodox world has no problem buying Shmitta produce from Israeli Arabs...and even Palestinian Arabs in Gaza! We have been saying for years that its a matter of life and death, and yet everyone turned a blind eye to the inherent danger of buying produce from Gaza Arabs?

I wonder if the Police will now target R' Chaim Kanievsky -- people who printed t-shirts advocating only Jewish Labor were arrested, tried, and found guilty of "incitement" a few years back.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Reflections from a bus

Received today via my wife from a yishuv community email list and rotter.net

The following is an email I recently received:

Every morning I take the 35 bus line to work. It's a quick ride and usually takes no more than 12 minutes. The third stop after I get on by the shuk is directly in front of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav. 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 head nods 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 Gemara. 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 neighbors 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 dvar torah that he had learned that week in Yeshiva. This past shabbat, she had no flowers.

When I got to work, one of my colleagues who lives in Efrat told me that her son was friends with 2 of the boys who had been killed. One of those boys was the stepson of a man who used to teach in Brovenders and comes to my shul in Riverdale every Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to be a chazan for one of the minyanim.

We are all affected by what goes on in Israel. Whether you know someone who was killed or know someone who knows someone or even if you don't know anyone at all, you are affected. The 8 boys who were killed will continue to impact us all individually and as a nation. Each one of us has the ability to make a profound impact on our world. This coming wednesday morning, I will be at Ben Gurion airport at 7 am with Nefesh B'Nefesh welcoming 40 new olim to Israel. We will not deter. We can not give up. We will continue to live our lives and hope and work for change, understanding and peace.

Sharon Millendorf

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Despite It All: Rejoicing in Adar

Several years ago during the "height" of the current Intifada, my settlement was not spared the horror of a terror attack.

Shootings on the roads, infiltrations into settlements, bombers on buses, attacks on yeshivot and high schools were the norm. Families would borrow bullet proof vests from the "Gemach" (free loan organization) just to drive around on the roads. All the school buses were quickly bulletproofed and our roads were pock marked by the heavy treads of IDF APCs.

Difficult times.

Our kitat konenut (Rapid Response CTU) was on alert alot those days, and we were all still reeling from the terror attack at home.

And then, one Friday night as we were sitting around the Shabbat dinner table (I believe we were in the middle of soup) there was a knock at the door.

One of our children went to the door to open it, and his eyes widened unexpectedly as the Rav of our community was at the door. Walking through the door, he started singing "misheh, misheh, misheh", the ubiquitous song heralding the start of the joyous Adar month. Trailing after him were about 30 neighbors; men, women, children, all dancing and singing into our home on Friday night...circling our dining room table, they sang and danced. I quickly grabbed our youngest, plopped him on my shoulders, and joined in the dancing, as did all our children, around the dining room table and living room.

After a few minutes, our Rav led the group to the next home on his list, and we joined in.

For close to an hour, we would go from home to home (as our group of dancers grew to close to 80 people), knocking at doors and dancing in -- as our Rav tried to heal some of the sadness and tragedy that affected our community.

That was a few years back; but the tradition continues.

Despite the awful terror attack on Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav this past Thursday night, the ongoing Katyusha rockets, and the bittersweet times we are experiencing these days in Israel, this past Friday night there came the same knock at the door, and dozens came in singing and dancing.

The soup was already cold when we returned home, as our group had grown to almost a hundred people as we continued to make house after house "smile" as we danced around their dining rooms.

I heard on the radio this morning one of the rabbanim from the Merkaz HaRav high school who said, "human beings were created to endure pain...death and mourning is part of life."

No one ignores the pain of the terror, no one forgets the mourning.

But we can't forget the message of Adar. We survived our enemies back then on Purim and we will continue to survive and flourish, today, and in the future.

A Joyous Month of Adar to all of Israel.

Jameel

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Anatomy of a Terror Attack

Trying to listen to each other over the music, we were sitting around the table this evening at a friend's simcha. 8:38 PM. The person opposite me gets a phone call on his cellphone, looks at me and says, "there's a terrorist right now shooting in Yeshiva Merkaz Harav."

My reply, "Why is he still shooting? How is it still going on? Why doesn't someone shoot him?"

Person to my left says, "Jameel, how can there be an attack going on and you don't know about it?"

I thought about that for a second and checked my beeper. Nothing.

Checked my cellphone. Nothing.

Checked my Hatzala radio..."Message Received" was blinking ominously. I hadn't heard the message come in over the din of the music.

Seconds are wasted in frustration, flipping to the SMS menu.

"ARAN ARAN ARAN (Mass Casualty Event) in Jerusalem, switch to channel 1"

I'm not in Jerusalem but in the Shomron, yet all EMTs switches to channel 1 to hear how bad it is. There have events before so bad that EMTs have left the Shomron and Central Israel regions to help.

The chaos of a terror attack blares through on my emergency radio's Channel 1.

Sirens and confusion are the backdrop to the voices reporting over my radio, as the forcedly calm voice, directs volunteer EMTs to the scene.

I call my friend Lurker in Jerusalem and tell him to get on the internet to see whats going on. He says the news sites have nothing; I tell him which site to go to. Its all there, reports coming in. Killed. Wounded. Terrorists in the Yeshiva.

Outside the simcha hall I'm getting phone calls from people; some walk over. I don't want to say how bad it is. JoeSettler calls me up with his report. Lurker calls me back with another report. Hatzala keeps yelling at its volunteers that there might be another live terrorist still there.

And then, there's a family at the simcha who have a son in the yeshiva. Another couple frantically tries to reach that son, hoping, praying he's ok. He's found. The parents are gently told about the attack, but their son is ok. The walk away in shock.

Everyone receives conflicting reports; my MDA beeper keeps going off. The IDF sends an update. Our whole Shomron region has gone to higher alert; our counter terror unit (kitat konenut) goes on alert for Shabbat.

Arab rocks are thrown at car outside our settlement.

Lurker calls. Another Qassam missile in Sedeort - a house is hit. More wounded.

As of now in Jerusalem's attack at 11:26 PM: 8 Dead. 7 Wounded.

Chodesh tov. Shabbat Shalom.

Jameel

I'm about to press publish when an incoming email from our community list catches my eye:

Please say tehillim immediately for my nephew, יהונתן בן אביטל who was wounded tonight in the terror attack. He's going into emergency surgery now.
He was niftar last night. Hashem Yikom Damo.

After thought: The location of tonight's terror attack was at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem -- founded by Rav Avraham HaCohen Kook. In 1929, when the news of the progrom in Hevron was relayed to Rav Kook, he fainted. After rousing him, he was asked if he was ok. He replied, "How can a Jew not faint when hearing such terrible news."

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד