Yigal my dear brother and lover,
My heart refuses to believe that you are not with us, I can literally imagine how I wake up from the dream and you come and say to everyone in your mischievousness: “What’s wrong with you, you’re depressed, what’s all the fuss about, we’re here, everything’s fine…”
At the end of your funeral, I couldn’t leave the cemetery, I sat next to your grave, touching the dirt in which you were buried, the dirt of the Land of Israel and Jerusalem that you loved so much, from which your special personality grew and was built. They say that you were murdered for the sanctification of Hashem, but those who knew you know that you lived a life of sanctification of Hashem in all your ways and actions.
Last week we were sitting together, I told you that my nephew is also named Yigal and his father, who is my brother, has a name with the same letters and his name is Gil, I asked you if you know what the name means, you simply answered that it is Simcha, but I answered that it is not Ordinary joy, because there are many words that express joy, such as Rina, Ditza, Sashon, and more. I told you that in the verse in the Song of Songs “Nagila and Nishamha in Bakho” the Melbim says that joy is about something that is permanent, but age is about something that renews itself, about renewal, which we want May the joy in G-d all the time be a sign of renewal and perseverance, may the joy in G-d be renewed and that we persevere in this joy, and this is so appropriate for you because you are always happy and always at your age, you are happy in G-d and His Torah and surely G-d is also happy in you.
Your grace was abundant without a break and simply, I was light-footed to any mitzvah and help to others.
A week and a half ago we sat together in Malwa Malka and when you heard that I was part of the management team of the Torat Lihima association you were enthusiastic and expressed your willingness to join our group of volunteers.
Last week, when we sat together with you in the office of the yeshiva and talked with a few other friends, Eliav Zafarani said that you taught him how to change a car door handle, then you helped me change a light bulb in the car, and told me that everything was simple, I just had to learn.
After your funeral we got together in a yeshiva and talked about you, everyone said something different but what they all have in common is that everything was accurate about you, like for example Dor Saban who said that he called you for help with a certain matter and you told him, in a way that was inappropriate for you, that you apologized that you could not help because you were confined to bed After a vaccination you did, but after 12 minutes you sent him a message – ‘I’ve recovered, I’m on my way to you’.
The light of your face and your kindness broke through the boundaries of the Yeshiva and also reached the residents of Olga who call and cry bitterly, like Yona Araki who saw your picture on the news and called me refusing to believe that your face is so beautiful and full of integrity and purity that the murderous hand of a virgin and impurity was sent to them.
When the Yeshiva established the branch in Tirat Carmel, we lacked 2 students to open a branch, and the manager and Rabbi Ephraim thought about who could be sent there as a pioneer. If it is true for you and your spiritual building, all your abundant kindness was from a clear position and inner certainty in your self, you were torn about the matter, it was important to you to help and you knew the great value of it, the decision was not easy in your eyes, but those who knew you know that you had a very healthy balance between Giving to the general and your private building, giving to the general does not come at the expense of your personal development, they nourished each other, your grace arose from your personality and your personality was built and strengthened by your grace.
Yagel, as your name is, full of joy in life, with strength, a big head and always the initiator, head and first for everything in holiness, full of the love of God, the love of the Torah and the love of Israel, a big heart that touched many hearts, it can be said about you without any exaggeration that there is no one who knew you and You touched his heart.
You were planning to enlist this August and that’s why you asked me to take you off the yeshiva’s lists, we didn’t agree easily, we didn’t want to give up on you so quickly, you said that you’re not really leaving the yeshiva and you keep coming but you can’t commit and therefore you don’t just want to be listed. It was important to us that this be done with a serious inquiry, you probably knew, but it was difficult for us to get rid of you.
A few minutes before the murder, you sent me a message, what happens at the end? what was decided? I gave you back the answer you so wanted to hear, but it was already a few minutes after the murder and you didn’t hear it. I told you that if you keep coming, even without committing, we will keep you but if you intend to disappear from us completely then we will take you down. I sent you this and I didn’t know you were already gone, you wanted to get off the lists and now this is it, you got off the lists and went up, you went up in the storm of heaven together with your brother Hillel Menachem and it suits you so well, because the point of brotherhood was very strong with you, I go through our messages and there is almost no message where you tell me or write me what’s going on bro.
Dear Yigal, it is hard for us to part with you, it is unfathomable that you left the life of a guy like you who is so full of life. You left a huge void in us.
I pray that the government of Israel, the IDF and the security forces will be brave and strong, that the State of Israel will claim our national honor and be a faithful messenger of God to avenge the spilled blood of his servants and that we will be able to meet again in the resurrection, in the days when “Ya’acob shall be saved and Israel shall rejoice”.
May the souls of Yagal Yaakov ben Shalom and Esther be lifted up.
The writer is a staff member at the Givat Olga yeshiva