Picture Credit score: JewishPress.com
They got here to her on a Friday evening, lengthy after the Shabbat meal. Everybody was in mattress, and Chanie had lastly, in the end, managed to fall right into a deep sleep.
Her 22-year-old son answered the door. “The place’s your mom?” they requested. Two IDF officers, and a health care provider.
“They all the time carry a health care provider,” Chanie Leiter informed JewishPress.com this weekend. “As a result of, properly … .”
They informed her son to get up his mom, a hard-working nurse at a Jerusalem hospital who had been having bother sleeping because the begin of the battle.
With only a half hour’s respectable sleep, Chanie realized that her son was killed in motion in northern Gaza earlier that day. For sure, the remainder of the evening was an limitless nightmare.
IDF Main (res) Moshe Yedidya Leiter, 39, was the primary Jewish little one to be born in Hebron in centuries. Brilliant from the beginning, by the age of seven he was already in a position to differentiate between the several types of gunfire the household heard day by day.
“That’s Jewish gunfire,” he would inform his mom. “Nothing to fret about.”
A number of years later, the household moved north, to Eli in Samaria, and the boy grew as much as turn into a multi-talented officer, husband to Tzippy and father of six, paramedic and medical pupil along with his involvement in coaching haredi males to affix the IDF’s elite Unit 8200.
The IDF delegation that Friday evening couldn’t inform Chanie how her son died. That data was not made accessible till not too long ago, a wound so uncooked that tears properly in her eyes regardless of her apparent effort to manage it.
“They will’t inform you till after they perform the complete investigation,” she defined. “The place was booby-trapped.”
“I might reasonably speak about his life than about how he was killed,” she added sadly. “Moshe was born in historic Hebron within the (Hebrew) month of Cheshvan, and was killed in the identical month, Erev Shabbat Parshat Chaya Sarah.”
Via his loss of life, Moshe has since saved the lives of different troopers dealing with the identical challenges in Gaza. The scenario during which he discovered himself has served one of many “classes” the IDF has realized as Israeli husbands, fathers, brothers and sons defend these at house, combating to eradicate the years-long existential risk introduced by the Iranian-backed terrorists on Israel’s borders.
“He was a frontrunner among the many communities he lived in, beloved by all,” Chanie mentioned. “His charisma, humorousness, and caring persona led folks to belief him. He all the time tried to assist the opposite individual to be one of the best model of themselves.
“As a medical pupil with a robust conviction to Israel, he didn’t forgo any of his reserve duties. As an officer, he made positive his troopers had been taken care of and knew their duties. ‘It was an honor to serve below his command,’ we had been informed quite a few instances,” she mentioned.
“His extensive smile and heat persona helped him hook up with these surrounding him. He would have been a terrific physician, they mentioned within the college, however God had deliberate in a different way. Like Moshe Rabeinu who led the Jewish Folks to Israel, however solely noticed from afar so our Moshe, handed the exams however hadn’t entered the wards. Yehi zichro baruch.”
A mom’s tribute and a mom’s love; however by way of his life Moshe Yedidya Leiter additionally earned the respect and admiration of those that knew him not solely at house, but additionally at battle.
‘A Little bit of Gentle, Consolation and Help’
Contending with that ache and studying learn how to survive the sorrow was the subject of many discussions held this weekend at an occasion held by the little-known “Menucha v’Yeshua” group based and led by Rabbi Mendy Koenig.
Some 40 different households, observant and never, had been hosted from Thursday afternoon by way of Saturday evening on the Ramada Lodge with full board and particular actions for the youngsters, greeted upon their arrival with a cheerful balloon flower.
Households had been taken on a guided tour of the Western Wall tunnels and excavations. They attended inspirational discussions and panels on bereavement.
Among the many featured audio system had been Israeli Chief Rabbi David Lau, journalist Sivan Rahav Meir, Rabbi Leo Dee, Racheli Frenkel, Orit-Mark-Ettinger and even managed to chuckle with the assistance of Eden Harel and Oded Menashe.
Music was in all places, together with as much as the beginning of the Sabbath, offering discreet cowl for the tears of the ladies as they lit the memorial candles thoughtfully positioned alongside the Shabbat tea lights. The music was there all through the weekend throughout all of the prayers, at each meal and bringing further power to a transferring Havdalah service.
Hugs had been in all places as properly; hugs between households, bear hugs from Hasidic males for the boys, from their wives to the ladies. These had been Hasidim whose message was clear from the beginning: the folks of Israel are one. Interval.
“To our pals, the heroes of power, the pricey and beloved holy households: In these difficult instances, when your deep private loss intertwines with our nation’s better sorrow, a tough interval when your entire nation mourns an unimaginable, painful actuality alongside your private grief … amidst this, the nation of Israel reveals its glory and splendor by way of immense mutual help, profound concord, and unwavering hope within the resilience and triumph of our everlasting folks.
“We’re grateful for the chance to give you a bit of sunshine, help and luxury throughout these attempting instances,” learn the handout to the households.
“These internet hosting days are designed for you – to achieve power, face challenges collectively, fill hearts with unity, and cling to hope.”
Through the meals on Shabbat, Hasidic males of their bekishes and shtreimels circulated by way of the eating room, smiling and providing liquid simcha – or liquid anesthetic, relying on one’s perspective — with a cart full of varied wines, whiskeys, and chocolate liqueur as music crammed the corridor.
The famend Yedidim Choir, along with vocalist Yishai Lapidot and a strong chazan (cantor) created a world of music all through your entire weekend, placing a long way, nonetheless fleeting, from the ache.
Many households appeared to know one another from comparable occasions, an additional little bit of help that was useful throughout among the discussions. Some had been keen to share their tales; for others, the wound is simply too recent, too uncooked.
Some households have given permission for JewishPress.com to share their tales, a privilege we are going to carry to our readers within the days forward.
