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By A Passenger
March 13, 2008
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Originally Published in Israel National News
Every morning I take the number 35 bus line to work. It's a quick
ride and usually takes no more than 12 minutes. The third stop after I
get on nearby the Jerusalem shuk is directly in front of Yeshivat
Merkaz HaRav.
On a recent morning, I found myself a bit anxious, unsure of what I
was going to see as we passed by. As I looked around, I saw death
notices pasted all over the street and flowers that had been brought by
visitors lined the entrance to the yeshiva.
When the bus pulled up to the stop, the driver shut off the engine
and stood. With tears in his eyes, he told everyone sitting on the bus
that one of the boys killed on Thursday night was his nephew. He asked
if everyone on the bus would not mind if he spoke for a few minutes in
memory of his nephew and the other boys that were killed. After seeing
head nods all over the bus, he began to speak.
With a clear and proud voice, he spoke beautifully about his
nephew. He said that his nephew was a person who was constantly on the
lookout for how to help out anyone in need. He was always searching for
a way to make things better. He loved learning and had a passion for
working out the intricacies of the Gemara. He was excited to join the
army in a few years and wanted to eventually work in informal
education.
As the driver continued to speak, I noticed that the elderly woman
sitting next to me was crying. I looked into my bag, reached for a
tissue and passed it to her. She looked at me and told me that she had
also lost someone she knew in the attack. Her neighbor's child was
another one of the boys killed.
As she held my hand tightly, she stood up and asked if she too
could say a few words in memory of her neighbor. She spoke of a young
man filled with a zest for life. Every Friday he would visit her with a
few flowers for Shabbat and a short dvar Torah that he had learned that
week in yeshiva.
This past Shabbat, she had no flowers.
When I got to work, one of my colleagues who lives in Efrat told me
that her son was friends with two of the boys who had been killed. One
of those boys was the stepson of a man who used to teach at Brovenders
Yeshiva; he comes to my shul back in Riverdale, New York, every Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur to be a cantor for one of the minyanim.
We are all affected by what goes on in Israel. Whether you know
someone who was killed or know someone who knows someone, or even if
you don't know anyone at all, you are affected. The eight boys who were
killed will continue to impact us all individually and as a nation.
Each one of us has the ability to make a profound impact on our
world. On Wednesday morning, I was at Ben-Gurion International Airport
at 7:00 am with Nefesh B'Nefesh, welcoming 40 new olim to Israel. We
will not be deterred. We can not give up. We will continue to live our
lives and hope and work for change, understanding and peace.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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