It is always difficult for me to leave my home in Kiryat Arba-Hebron and especially my students in the yeshiva, which is the spiritual and cultural center of the community. But I feel that these trips are necessary to strengthen our bond with our brethren in the Diaspora who seek a true picture of the situation in Eretz Yisrael.
Although our people are indeed enduring immense pain and suffering, I must remind our friends abroad that there is a dominant spirit of faith and joy when participating in building Eretz Yisrael and raising our children to appreciate the privilege of living in this period of redemption. I travel abroad several times a year to seek the necessary financial support for our educational projects and thank our friends for joining us as partners in our holy task.
During many of my trips abroad, painful incidents took place in Israel that made it difficult being so far away from home, my family, and my students. But this time it was more painful than ever.
I left New York on Friday morning, heading for my first visit to the special Jewish community of Milwaukee. While getting acquainted with our hosts, the Rubin family, I received a chilling phone call at 1:30 p.m. from my friend Rabbi Feuerstein in Livingston, New Jersey. He had just received the news that a horrific attack had taken place on the road between the Cave of Machpela and Kiryat Arba.
Preliminary reports described the aftermath of almost three hours of combat: at least 10 Israelis dead, among them residents of Kiryat Arba, and many injured, some of them mortally wounded. I was gripped by anxiety, wondering who were the victims of this terror, knowing that this is the road I tread almost every Friday night to Shabbat prayers together with my family, my students, my neighbors and so many people I’ve known over the last 30 years.
The tension was unbearable because it was already Shabbat in Israel which prevented me from communicating with our people there. I phoned the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C., asked for the military attache and spoke to General Sukenik, who was very helpful. He told me that there were 12 dead but he had no names except for the commander of the Hebron Brigade, Colonel Dror Weinberg.
This was a shocking revelation because Dror was a close friend whom I had come to admire. He was a graduate of Rav Kook’s yeshiva, a courageous G-d-fearing Jew whose entire life was devoted to the security of Israel and especially that of the Jews of Kiryat Arba-Hebron. He was father to five children and his wife, Hadassah, was pregnant with their sixth.
Just a week earlier I participated at the wedding of my student Chanoch Zelinger, whose father is a former student and who for many years served as a teacher and executive director of the yeshiva. Chanoch married Maayan, the daughter of Kiryat Arba’s emergency security force chief, Yitzchak Boanish, z”l. Dror and Yitzchak were devoted friends, working together for the security of Jews living in Kiryat Arba and Hebron. We spent a joyous evening celebrating and we even had an opportunity to be photographed together. The photograph is the last memento I have of him. Dror was a hero who acquired his valor and strength from sources of holiness and faith, a modern day Maccabee.
The Shabbat was tense, in anticipation of what I would hear on Motzei Shabbat. The Almighty gave me the strength to bring my special message to the community in Milwaukee in various talks over the weekend. The events in Hebron and the concern it aroused added a special dimension of urgency and depth to my words. I spoke about the ladder of Jacob, the ups and downs representing the struggle of the People of Israel which will lead to redemption. Jacob received the name Israel after overcoming the evil angel, representing Esau and all our wicked enemies. This struggle for Jewish existence, which continues throughout the ages, was transpiring this Shabbat, on soil so close to my beloved home in Kiryat Arba, soil now soaked in the blood of my students and friends.
I told the people in Milwaukee that although my mind was occupied by events far away, I could sense the genuine compassion throbbing in every heart. I appreciated the special love and concern that enveloped me to make my Shabbat as pleasant as possible under the circumstances.
Even before receiving all the detailed information, I already contemplated the need to return home and forgo the next eight days on the West Coast as originally planned. The final decision was made for me when I called my wife, Ruth, and my son who gave me a detailed list of the dead and wounded.
Three members of the Kiryat Arba emergency force had been killed: Yitzchak Boanish, z”l, the force commander with whom I had just danced at his daughter’s wedding, father of seven, a tzaddik whose mind and heart were taken up day and night ensuring the security of Jews in Kiryat Arba ? Hebron; Alex Dochan, z”l, a French immigrant, father of four and Alex Zveitman, z”l, a Russian immigrant, father of one little boy.
Other members of the emergency force were wounded including my son-in-law Naftali Goldberg. In my grief over the dead, I gave thanks to the Almighty that Naftali was “only” shot in the thigh.
On Sunday morning I returned to New York and that evening I flew back to Israel to rejoin and comfort my family, students and friends. From Ben Gurion airport, I traveled immediately to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem to visit the severely wounded Moshe (ben Rachel) Frejj and Baruch (ben Varda) Desta, both of whom are still unconscious at this time. Another of the badly wounded when a bullet pierced his neck, Alexander (ben Pepi) Ben Zikri, my former student, is already sitting and talking. Only then did I visit my son in law Naftali (ben Liba) who was recovering from an operation.
Those who were killed and wounded portray a mosaic of the unity in pain of all tribes of Israel; residents of Hebron who were Israeli born, immigrants from the U.S., France, Russia, Ethiopia ? all devoted to Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.
Making shiva visits these past two years has been a painful but elevating experience. While participating in the sorrow of the families, I was able to absorb the faith and spiritual strength projected to all the visitors. This was especially true during my visits this week.
I would like to relate the words of Alex Zveitman’s mother: When he was a child of 8 or 9 in Russia, he began wearing a kipa and drew Jewish Stars on his notebooks. The school administration warned the parents that this was dangerous. They tried to convince him to stop but he wouldn’t listen. At age 13, when he arrived in Israel, he personally made all the arrangements for a brit mila and refused to undergo the procedure under sedation. Afterwards, he immediately was back on his feet. These Jewish instincts brought him to live in Kiryat Arba and to volunteer for the emergency team ? a story of heroism in the hearts of all Jews.
At Colonel Weinberg’s home, I told his widow Hadassah that after all the Jewish sacrifices of the last few months, I felt the Almighty was mobilizing special souls to join the heavenly armies up above. Now that He had an entire brigade of soldiers in His unit, He seems to have needed a commander and that’s why He took the pure soul of Dror. We know from the words of our sages that these souls are continuing their life of faith and devotion and they now serve as a source of strength for all of us who remained in this world to continue the struggle for Jewish existence and destiny.
On Motzei Shabbat, at a massive assemblage of the people of Kiryat Arba, the rabbis and leaders all united in their demand for establishing a continuous row of Jewish homes, directly connecting Kiryat Arba to the Cave of Machpela. We also demanded the removal of all terrorist cells from our midst and complete permanent control of all of Hebron by Israeli authorities.
This demonstration gathered at the very place where the Friday night terrorist attack occurred, and where a permanent Jewish presence was established immediately afterwards. We are determined to continue fulfilling our mission of ensuring Jewish life in Hebron. The first Jewish redemption from Egypt began when our father Jacob sent his son Joseph from Hebron to Shechem.
“So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem” (Genesis 37:14).
Our present process of redemption is unfolding on that same biblical path between Hebron in southern Judea and Shechem in northern Samaria which is thriving with Jewish life comprised of 240,000 Jews. This powerful reality of faith, tested by the pain of Jewish sacrifice and elevated by the joy and satisfaction of dynamic building and spiritual enlightenment, will determine the destiny of the Jewish people.