Miriam Peretz gave birth to her son, Eliraz, 13 years ago in March 2010. Eliraz served as deputy commander of the 12th Battalion of the Golani Brigade and encountered a terrorist cell in the Gaza Strip. Prior to this, she had educated her other son, Uriel Hid, in Lebanon 12 years prior.
In an interview with Kippa News, Miriam, the bride of the Israel Prize for Life Foundation, talked about the day she learned about Eliraz’s death, his special personality, and his devotion to others. She talked about how she didn’t connect her bad feeling to Eliraz before she was informed about his death. She mentioned that she requested that the officers inform God first and went out to her garden to do so.
Miriam recalled the difficult Seder night after Eliraz’s oath and how she couldn’t understand how she managed to read the entire Haggadah for the first time that year. She spoke about Eliraz’s unique character, how he was connected to Israel, and how he loved humanity. She even mentioned a story that reflected his special personality, one where he thought of others.
13 years ago, in Nisan, on March 26, 2010, Miriam Peretz gave birth to her second son Eliraz, who served as deputy commander of the 12th Battalion of the Golani Brigade in an encounter with a terrorist cell in the Gaza Strip. This is 12 years after she educated her young son, Uriel Hid, in Lebanon.
In a conversation with Kippa News, the bride of the Israel Prize for Life Foundation, Miriam Peretz, tells about the day she learned that her son Eliraz had fallen in the Gaza Strip and about his special personality and his devotion to others.
“From the glass door I suddenly see people in uniform. I ran to the door, locked it and closed the blinds, no one will inform me”
Miriam told about her feelings that Friday when Eliraz fell. “I’m preparing for Passover and something in my heart is not good and I don’t associate the feeling with Eliraz, but only one thing did turn on a red light. After Uriel fell, the IDF brought us a bag with his equipment and I don’t touch it except on Passover. I clean upstairs and open the bag with a Uriel toothbrush, apply the toothbrush and try to smell my children’s once-a-year bad breath. That year, I take out my brush and suddenly the thought comes to my mind: ‘God, don’t give me another box like this.'”
Miriam Peretz Photo: Hadas Parush/Flash90
Peretz recreated the moment when she realized that she was going to be told the bad news. “At 3 o’clock I finish cleaning the closet last, and the door hit my head and I screamed. The children look and say that I haven’t been hit and I tell them, ‘Don’t tell me there isn’t a hit.’ of Eliraz. From a glass door I suddenly see people in uniform. I ran to the door, locked it and closed the blinds. No one would let me know. I was alone at home. I’m standing next to only one picture, of Eliezer my husband, who died of a heartbreak. I think God Loved him more than me because he didn’t let him hear the second message about Eliraz. And I say to Eliezer in front of his picture, ‘What did you do in heaven?'”
“I asked God, ‘How do you take him?’ and I realized that I would not have an answer”
She also added and repeated what she said to the officers when they entered her home. “They came in and I took my hand and shut their mouths. Every minute they don’t say the sentence ‘Aliraz was killed in the battle in Gaza’ Aliraz is still alive. I decided that in his entire life she would not let a single minute go to waste. Then I told them ‘You don’t inform me I have Someone I want you to inform.’ I took them out to the garden and raised my hand to the sky and said ‘Inform God. Let him know that his son Eliraz has fallen. Now let him know that he is the father of the orphans, the father of widows. I want to know how Father in Heaven receives this message.’ Eliraz is the one who is injured all covered in blood and is looking for a tefillin inside Jenin to put on, he is the one who comes home and enters the beit midrash after a month of not seeing his wife and children. I asked God, ‘How do you take him?’ and I realized that I would not have an answer.”
The funeral of Eliraz Peretz, photo: Abir Sultan/Flash 90
She added and said that “at that moment I said to God, ‘You have to teach me to love you.’ It is very easy to love you when there is money and health, when there is everything, but teach me to love you when you take my son. You require me 3 times a day to say ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart’, how will I do that, teach me. I entered the house from the yard and saw my children and the first word out of my mouth was ‘thank you’. Thanks for what’s left and it’s not safe either. Thank you for what I have left and I hugged my children because I realized that it is also a miracle that I have them.”
“They sang what will change and I want to shout to them this night father is gone, you are orphans”
Peretz recalls the difficult Seder night after Eliraz’s oath. “A terrible Shabbat passed and the next Sunday we buried him and a day and a half later the Seder night came. My daughter-in-law Shlomit dressed the three children, Uriel aged 6, Hillel Miriam aged 5, Shir Zion aged 3 and Gili my daughter Ami, she did not know her father, she was two months old. They sit at the Seder table and they sing aloud what will change. And I want to shout to them from this night that father is gone, you are orphans. That year I did not understand how I was able, for the first time in my life, to finish the entire Haggadah. Then I found the answers to my questions. In Hallel we read. From the Lord, she was wonderful in our eyes.’
“Eliraz is one who did the craziest things, but only crazy people create new works”
Miriam told about the unique character of Eliraz. “Eliraz Benny was so connected to Israel and above all he loved humanity. Those with the kippa and those without, those from the left and those from the right, ultra-Orthodox and secular. He lived a life of joy but he also lived a life of clarifying his values. All his life he strove to give an answer to one central question ‘Why was man created, what does God want from me’. All his life he was concerned with the question of my mission in the world. Eliraz is the one who did the craziest things, but only crazy people create new works.”
Photo: Kobi Gideon / Flash90.
At the end of her speech, Miriam told a story about Eliraz that reflects his special personality. “Shlomit his wife once asked him what makes you happy. I was sure that he would tell her that he is married with children and he told her, ‘What makes me most happy is that I am part of a great nation’ He had Jewish pride. This should be strengthened to be proud to be Jewish and Eliraz taught His son is one big thing. A week after he fell, we arrived at their husband’s house. His brother, Elisaf, drove on the road where she was lying as a stone and continued to drive. And suddenly a new light shouted at Elisaf, ‘Tell me you’re not my father,’ so he said to him ‘ Obviously I’m not a father’, and he told him that his father would pass by on the road and see a stone and he would move it. A story that shows that Eliraz always thought of the other.”