Many responses were received in my email inbox following the previous column, which brought the stories of the fallen who started Tractate Baba Kama at the beginning of the war, but would not have the opportunity to finish it with all the Daf Yomi students this week.
The most moving responses were from readers who simply wrote that they accepted that they had to start the first page of Tractate Baba Metzia this Friday, to continue life where they left off. One of the students even told me that he wrote the name of Yossi (Yosef Chaim ben Yaakov) Hershkowitz on the first page of the Tractate, as a kind of daily reminder to the one whose study he was continuing.
And there were also three pictures – or rather two pictures and one illustration – that told three stories about setting times for Torah in these challenging times. Here they are for you.
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1.
""Good week, friends. My name is Ricky Berkowitz, I am the mother of Eyal Meir Berkowitz, the son of Eyal, who was killed in Gaza about two months ago. I am attaching an illustration, out of more than a hundred similar illustrations that our son Eyal left behind. Eyal drew these illustrations when my husband studied at the high yeshiva about eight years ago. Eyal studied there for three years before enlisting and serving in the Sayeret Matkal and later in Magellan.".
Even among the long list of those who fell, I remembered this name well, Eyal Berkowitz, the late. Even the day he fell. And I remembered his face too. It's hard to forget the unusual mourning notice issued by the Susya community where he grew up. Not a black frame with the name of the fallen man in the center, but a colorful notice, with lots of light, and with a photograph of a menorah with the first candle of Hanukkah that the people of Israel lit that evening. And with the face of Eyal Meir Berkowitz, which simply illuminated the notice more than all the menorahs.
I remember going to Google to read a little about Eyal Berkovich, the late, but all the searches led me to quotes from a completely different Eyal Berkovich. And I thought to myself how sad it is that to this day, a sweet and special Eyal Berkovich lives in this world, who enlightened the world, but everyone knew that Eyal Berkovich (whom I of course wish him a long and happy life). What a miss.
""During the yeshiva period," writes his mother, the principal of the Susiya Regional School, "he would illustrate, inspired by friends, for the study of all kinds of concepts from the Gemara. I am attaching here some illustrations from Tractate Bava Kama, towards the end of the tractate in the Daf Yomi, to entertain the learners, as if it were not for your Torah, my amusements..." We have about a hundred such illustrations, we are thinking about what to do with them and are looking into collaborating with the Israel Museum for an exhibition that would also be suitable for the religious and ultra-Orthodox public.
""Eyal was a man of books (his extensive library of all Torah literature testifies to this) and set times for Torah all his days, including during the fighting in Gaza. One of his greatest loves was the Tanakh (which he had with him in Gaza and was full of notes, interpretations and refinements in his own handwriting) and the Mishnah, which he studied in depth and breadth, which caused his friends to call him 'the shark of Mishnah.' With God's help, we will publish all the illustrations as a book for the students of the Beit Midrash. It is possible that its name will be 'Your Torah, My Entertainment.'".
Thank you very much, Ricky, for the illustration you sent. Thank you very much for raising such a son. And thank you for thinking about how to "entertain the learners" amidst the heavy personal grief.
2.
This column has already written about the educator Elkanah Wiesel, the late of Bnei Dekalim. After his fall, his will became very public, in which he wrote, among other things: "When a soldier falls in battle, it is sad. But I ask you to be happy. Don't be sad when you say goodbye to me. Sing a lot, touch hearts, hold each other's hands and strengthen each other. We have so much to be proud of and rejoice in, we are a generation of redemption!".
I highly recommend that you search on the wonderful 'Moment of Wisdom' channel for the clip "I Won With My Blood" by Benjamin Luria, which was written inspired by the will.
This week, Gila, Elkana's mother, sent me a picture of a boy, about ten years old, standing in front of a stand and finishing a tractate. And the sweet boy bears an eerie resemblance to his sweet father, whose image appears on the screen behind him.
""I am happy to share with you the completion of the Shas of our son Elkanah, one month after his fall," she begins. Then she explains this incomprehensible sentence:
""A few years ago, Elkana decided to advance in his study of the Daf Yomi and complete what he had already learned in the past. Elkana only had two more tractates left to study: Megillah and Nida.
Because of his injury in Protective Edge, he took a break from the reserves four years ago, so when the war broke out he was not drafted under Order 8. But he insisted on enlisting and happily joined his reserve battalion, Battalion 8208. His wife Galit's blessing on the journey was accompanied by a request that he continue to study the Daf Yomi every day. When the battalion arrived at the destroyed outpost in Kisufim, one of the first things Elkanah did was go to the synagogue and look for a gemara.
There he met the battalion rabbi, Rabbi Shai Yaakovovich, who asked him why he was looking for a tractate that was not on the Seder. Elkana explained to him that he had decided to complete the tractates he was missing to complete the Shas during the war. After Elkana was killed along with twenty other soldiers in the disaster of the collapse of the buildings, Rabbi Shai decided that it was necessary to complete the study of these tractates by the time of the thirtieth commemoration. He took it upon himself to study Tractate Megillah and distributed Tractate Nida among everyone who chose to join in this study.
""And so, last Wednesday, we held the thirtieth commemoration, which also included Elkana's graduation ceremony. My husband Binyamin, Elkana's father, together with Avinoam Avraham, Elkana's son, performed the graduation ceremony, Rabbi Shai told the story, and the joy of the graduation skyrocketed with singing and dancing.".
Thank you very much Gilo for the picture. Thank you very much for raising such a son (and such a grandson!). And thank you for telling us about "sky-high joy" amidst your heavy personal grief.
3.
""Hi friends, this is Gilad Sarig. I am writing to you from the Pega outpost on the Gaza border. There were 14 deaths at the Pega outpost on Simchat Torah. The outpost commander, a Hero of Israel, Captain Dekel Suissa, was killed during the battle after going out several times to cover his soldiers who had taken shelter in the dining room. He fought, killed dozens of terrorists, evacuated the wounded, and protected his soldiers until the last drop of his blood. Later, the terrorists tried to burn the remaining people in the dining room alive by setting mattresses on fire. The arrival of rescue forces saved them a few minutes before that happened.
We arrived at the Pega outpost after Simchat Torah. We get to serve in the sector as part of the "Phoenix" battalion, older guys in tanks, not young ones, and most of the time we are at this outpost, which, among other things, has a synagogue. There is a sticker on the door of the synagogue with a picture of Dekel Suisa. When we learned about Dekel's character, we found that at the end of the journey wearing a beret, he spoke to the families and soldiers and said the sentence: 'A person has two options: either to bother with himself or to do something better,' and he also used to say: 'Don't forget to smile when you wake up.' One of his soldiers told us that when Dekel found ten free minutes, he would go into the synagogue to study.
Among the servicemen are those who study the daily page. In war, it is not always possible to study, and when it is possible, there is not always the desire, because after all, there is an excuse – we are at war. This is a daily struggle, more difficult than usual. The daily tasks and routine in the army do not always create conditions for studying, to say the least. Some of us have accumulated gaps of dozens of pages during the period, but we do not give up, and we know that this perseverance, sometimes in impossible conditions, is the key to continuing. Holding on for a few more lines, even if we have not finished a whole page, is our connection from the demanding and aggressive practical world of war to the world of the Jewish spirit.
The guy who fell asleep here on the page in the photo I sent is Nir, a resident of Efrat, a father of seven, and he is my gunner in the tank. When we manage to study for half an hour in silence, to find the leisure between one activity and another, we look at the sticker with the picture of Dekel Suissa, the late, who sat right on these benches and used every free minute from fighting to study, and we receive renewed strength to study, even when our eyes are closed in front of the page.".
Thank you very much, Gilad, for the encouraging paparazzi. Thank you also to the persistent Nir. And thank you that while fighting, you find the time to continue the legacy of Dekel Suissa. And if you fell asleep on the page at the end of the day - don't forget to smile when you wake up.
• The column is published in the newspaper 'Bisheva''
