A Powerful Day

Yesterday I had the opportunity to do one of the most meaningful and powerful things I have ever done in this country. An opportunity I was grateful to have, and one I pray never happens again.

This past Sunday morning, a Palestinian terrorist opened fire in the Old City of Jerusalem, killing one and injuring several others. News slowly leaked throughout the day, until reports mentioned that the victim in this horrific attack was a former lone soldier from South Africa, who served in the Tzanhanim (paratroopers) brigade from 2017-2019.

Immediately my mind shifted to those such as Michael Levin and Max Steinberg, two lone soldiers who died during their service in 2006 and 2014 respectively. What these two individuals had in common, aside from the fact that they were both lone soldiers, is that their funerals brought out thousands upon thousands of people from throughout the country, coming to support the heroic life and devastating deaths of these two individuals.

While any terrorist attack is devastating, it hit a bit of a different toll when we found out the victim was a former lone soldier, and the impact was definitely felt within our Garin. Eli Kay z”l, the victim in this attack, was a former lone soldier like we will soon be, and was just recently serving as a tour guide in the old city, a path that many former lone soldiers take. The similarity of his path to the one we are about to embark on made this feel a little closer to home.

On Monday morning, as I was sitting in Ulpan (Hebrew class) with a few friends from my Garin, we spontaneously decided to leave class and go to the funeral. We saw the details for the funeral on social media, and within 10 minutes, five of us were jogging towards the bus. Our teacher, at first surprised we were running away from class, then understood what we were doing and believed we were doing the right thing. We ran towards the bus from Kibbutz Saad (where we have Ulpan) to Sderot, and then we arrived in Sderot exactly when the bus to Jerusalem was about to leave. The timing was perfect, and for a last minute decision, we made it to Jerusalem with ample time to even grab a bite to eat beforehand.

However, all that is leading up to the powerful moment of the day.

We arrived at the cemetery to the area where the ceremony was taking place, but we were too far to hear or see anything. Instead we peeked at other peoples phones around us who had the live stream playing on their devices.

Then, at a certain point, everyone's phones were away, the ceremony was finished, and we saw a line of people walking behind the body being carried to a vehicle. The vehicle then started to slowly drive forward, with over a thousand people following and singing/humming classic Jewish tunes and prayers. Myself, being in the crowd, felt this powerful atmosphere all around me, as we were slowly walking for what felt like half an hour to the grave site.

When we arrived at Eli’s soon to be burial sight, the love in the air hit me and those around me. For me it wasn’t some religious or divine feeling, but rather one of support and community for a guy that most people there didn’t know, but surely felt they knew in some way. With the start of Yedid Nefesh, the Jewish prayer traditionally sung at the start of Kabbalat Shabbat, I was really able to feel the power of the moment.

In all, this is a day I will probably never forget. A day that shows the love and community in this world, but also a day I hope never has to happen again.

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Below are a few takeaways from yesterday.

The first is that about an hour before the terrorist attack occurred, two of my friends from the Garin, both returning to the Kibbutz from a weekend in Jerusalem, were at the same exact location where the shooting took place. It is rare in a big country, such as The United States, to have been at the exact location of where a shooting happens, let alone an hour beforehand. However, the fact that they were just there, and the fact that I have been there many times, makes this feel more real, and that they could have been the victims instead, or maybe even me.

The second thing has to do with the people who attended yesterday. I expected that at huge funerals such as this, individuals from across Israel come out in support: religious and secular, left and right wing, ashkenazim and mizrahim, kibbutzniks, moshavniks, settlers, and you name it. However, what I realized is that most of the people at this funeral were religious and probably right-wing leaning. I even saw Itamar Ben Gvir, the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, show up to make his appearance. Eli was indeed a part of the Chabad community, and the crowd certainly indicated that, so in some ways it makes sense. However, it was a bit sad to see that most of the people were from a certain sect of Israel’s population, and it furthermore made me question whether the crowd would have looked different if this was some secular Jew who made Aliyah to Tel Aviv.

The third thing was that the Tzanhanim brigade showed up, and it seemed as if nobody was left on base. The overwhelming love and support from his brigade was certainly on full display, and it showed the camaraderie and brotherhood of the unit. Eli’s family certainly has a big connection with Tzanhanim, as his brother is also currently serving in the unit, and to see the red boots and red berets throughout the crowd was powerful in and of itself.

The fourth and final takeaway is that within the crowd, many of them were lone soldiers themselves. Lone soldiers are generally easy to pick out, most easily done by a group of soldiers in uniform speaking fluent English to each other. But regardless, just like me and the people in my Garin, many people saw themselves on very similar paths as this guy, and the general connection of being a lone soldier drew this community to the funeral.

In all, these takeaways were simply things on my mind both at the funeral and after. I was grateful to be there and to have made the last second decision to come. If I decided not to attend, for whatever reason, and that mindset was shared by the thousands of people at the funeral, then no one would have been there. I am happy I came, I am happy over a thousand people came, and I know that even if Eli doesn’t know about the support he had, his family there certainly did, and that means a lot in and of itself.

*Some videos above from the funeral