Yom HaZikaron - Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism

Today is the Memorial Day for the fallen IDF soldiers. I'm sitting in my little apartment, in the living room. On the radio sad Israeli songs are being played. Working from home most of the time, these songs are constantly in the background. In between, the voices of family members of fallen soldiers are broadcasted. They talk about their dear ones, about the fight in which they fell, about their life after receiving that dreadful message that their father/son/brother are no longer with us. When you hear that, you can't hold back the tears. I'm easy to cry, no matter what, but I think that on this day, when we are all surrounded by these stories and these memories, even the toughest among us cry. We all know someone who lost a family member in wars or in terror attacks. My boss, a very tough woman when it comes to business and worldly things, choked yesterday when she was on the phone with me, when we started talking about this day. I think it is the first time I heard her cry. Her older son has already finished his military service. The younger one is still serving. But you don't need to serve in the army in order to be a target. Nowadays, and this is not new, civilians are being targeted too in hideous acts of terror.
I can talk about my own relatives (including a first circle relative) who were killed or wounded in wars, but I think today I would talk about two people that I never knew personally, but I feel that their stories should be told and known.
One of them has become a national hero, a name that everyone in Israel knows, a name that should be known worldwide. Ironically, I think that someone like him would really hate to be famous and to have people talk about him, so when I decided to write about him today, I asked forgiveness from him in my heart. Roi Klein (רועי קליין ז"ל) was an officer in the IDF. He served in the Golani brigade and fought a few battles, including the one in the Second Lebanon War, in which he found his death in 2006. He lived in the Eli settlement in Samaria and was part of the National Religious society, the most beautiful segment of population in Israel, and dare I say, in the whole world. They are the kind who combine Torah learning and actual service to society. Everywhere they go and whatever they do, they are always at the top, giving themselves and their needs up in order to serve others, and in order to serve G-d. Roi Klein was a father of two children, who are now left orphaned. During that fateful fight in the Second Lebanon War, a hand-grenade was thrown by the enemy on the military force he was commanding. Without thinking twice, Roi threw himself on the grenade in order to prevent it from exploding on his soldiers. By sacrificing himself, he saved his soldiers from being hurt. His soldiers told that while he was dying from his wounds, Roi shouted "Shema Israel" (Hear, O Israel, HaShem is our Lord, HaShem is one", Deut. 6:4), and gave his field-communication-device to the officer that took command of the force from that moment. And he died. In 2009, the Israel Supreme Court of Justice (a secular court, some like to call it 'the supreme court of injustice') was thinking of destroying the neighborhood in which Roi used to live in the Jewish Settlement of Eli, because it is behind the green line. After much protest from people in Israel, PM Netanyahu promised the people and the family, that Roi Klein's house will not be destroyed, and in fact, the whole neighborhood was saved thanks to this. Many things were done and established to commemorate Roi and his heroism. One of them was the building of a Bet Midrash (a Torah study institute) at the University of Ariel.

To learn more about Roi, you can read in the website that his family made in his memory: http://www.roiklein.co.il/roi.aspx?lang=eng

Or watch this short video, with English subtitles. Try not to cry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrAtif91gI8

Roi Klein of Blessed Memory

The second fallen soldier I want to write about is IDF officer Yochai (Juchah) Kalangel of blessed memory. Last year I listened to the radio one Saturday night, to an after-Shabbat program. The hosts of the program interviewed a man, the father of a fallen soldier. He wanted to invite the public to join the family in the settlement where they live to a special event: to celebrate with the family when they bring a new Torah Scroll to the local synagogue, in memory of his son. When he spoke, he was constantly choking with tears and could hardly finish his sentences. The pain was so palpable in his voice. I could feel his heart. I decided that I just have to go there, meet him and the family, and join them when they bring the Torah Scroll into the synagogue. I took a bus to their settlement in Gush Etzion (in Judea, not far from Hebron), and joined the long procession of people who were dancing with the Torah Scroll and passing it from hand to hand, kissing it. I stayed there for the meal and when people started leaving I talked with the parents. They told me the following incredible story about Yochai, their son:
When Yochai died, people started coming to the family house, where the family was sitting Shiv'a (a seven day period of mourning in Judaism, in which the family is at home and relatives and friends come to comfort them and mourn with them, sharing stories about the deceased person). When Yochai's soldiers came to the house to comfort the family, many of them told the family unbelievable stories about Yochai. It turned out that Yochai spent most of his military salary to buy food, electrical devices such as washing machines, etc., to the families of his poor soldiers. He used to go every Friday to these families, and without even knocking on the door just left a basket of food for Shabbat so that these families could celebrate Shabbat properly.
Yochai was married, father of two girls. His father asked him: "Nu, Yochai, when will you buy a house?" and Yochai just said: "Not now, father, not now", not telling his father what he was really doing with his money. When the family learned about the amazing acts of loving-kindness that their fallen son used to do, they started an NPO to continue his ways. This NPO buys and distributes food and other necessary products to poor families of IDF soldiers, just like their son used to do. They do it completely voluntarily, without taking even one Shekel to themselves - all the donations go to the poor families. For years I was looking for such an NPO, that gives all the money to the poor without taking anything to themselves, and I found it with them. This is the website of the NPO: https://uf-kadima.org.il. It is in Hebrew only. I offered them to translate it to English, but they asked me to wait with it until they change the contents of the website a bit. You can watch a video (with English subtitles) on Yochai here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=bRv6ODnlGKQ

Yochai Kalangel of Blessed Memory

I think we should think of these two soldiers, and many thousands more like them, who instead of thinking of themselves, thought of others, thought of us, and were willing to sacrifice their lives so that we would live. May their example shine as a beacon of light to Israel and to the whole world.

Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) is almost over. In an hour from now the celebrations of Israel's 70th independence day will start. I will celebrate, of course, but my heart is still with the families who gave the dearest to them so that we can enjoy independence in our G-d given land.

Thank you for reading.