Last Friday morning, 30 Adar I, the eight yeshiva students
Hy"d murdered at Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav in Jerusalem
during the heinous massacre in the yeshiva library the night
before were laid to rest.
The names of the victims are Neria Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem;
Segev Peniel Avichail, 15, of Neveh Daniel; Yonatan Yitzchak
Eldar, 16, of Shilo; Avraham David Moses, 16, of Efrat; Ro'i
Roth, 18, of Elkana; Yochai Lifshitz, 18, of Jerusalem;
Yehonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashachar; and
Doron Mehereteh, 26, of Ashdod, Hy"d.
Segev Peniel Avichail survived a shooting attack on Telem
Road a few years ago. The hundreds of friends and relatives
on hand for the funeral held at Mount of Olives Cemetery were
slow to take in the terrible tragedy. He left behind his
parents and two younger siblings, a boy-girl set of twins.
"He was a gift we received 15 years ago," said the uncle of
the niftar in his eulogy. "A pure and good-hearted
boy. He was exceptionally diligent in his studies and he very
much loved his siblings and parents."
A friend at the yeshiva recalled: "When I saw his name on the
death notice at first I couldn't believe that Segev was among
those killed, but then when it dawned on me I began to cry.
Segev loved learning gemara and tried to rectify and
improve everything around him. When he was accepted to the
yeshiva he ran to tell everybody and was very excited."
Yochai Lifshitz, who had been studying in the library at the
time of the attack, was eulogized by his father, Tuvia
Lifshitz: "Yochai, we want to say one thing to you: thank
you. Thank you for everything you did and everything you gave
over the course of 18 years. Now you're together with your
friends, the kedoshim, Hashem yikom damam, and
Hakodosh Boruch Hu is coming toward you, like a groom
to his bride."
His friends said, "On the night of the attack Yochai was in
the library and for hours was listed missing, but we knew he
had been killed. It's a real blow to us." A resident of the
Jewish Quarter in the Old City, Yochai is survived by his
parents, four brothers and a sister. Following the funeral
procession he was buried at Har Hamenuchos Cemetery in
Jerusalem.
The levaya for Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16, set out
from the beis knesses in Shilo for the section of the
local cemetery set aside for the other kedoshim from
the community. He was the sixth of eight siblings.
His eldest brother, David, said in his hesped, "It's
so fitting for you to die while learning. What a happy lot
for you that you died while engaged in divrei Torah. I
admired you for everything you did. For us, Adar will no
longer be joyous. But do everything you can, Above, so that
this month will be happy for all of Bnei Yisrael." Another
brother, Yair, also eulogized him: "You're buried with your
gemara. The pages of the gemara will testify
for you."
Avraham David Moses, 16, of Efrat, was eulogized by his
father. "He's a tzaddik from the shoulders up," he
said, choked with tears. "He always made every effort to
achieve perfection. He had an amazing sense of integrity." He
recalled that on Thursday night, when they heard about the
attack, the family looked for the boy in vain. "I heard about
the attack while I was at an alumni gathering at the yeshiva
I attended. We knew he didn't carry a phone with him most of
the time, because he didn't want it to ring in the beit
midrash. He didn't answer, but we weren't worried at
first because we thought he was busy studying. That's typical
of him. We called a friend of his, who didn't answer either.
Later it turned out that friend had been killed, too. And
then came the stage so many people here go through —
the lists from the hospitals and the negative replies from
each of the hospitals, and then the hardest moment. Facing
the truth we didn't want to hear. Even now we're in a kind of
denial."
Hundreds, including many residents of Kochav Hashachar, took
part in the levaya of Yehonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19,
who is survived by his parents and 12 siblings. "He was a
serious young man, a lamdan who was constantly at his
studies," recalled his friends, through bitter tears. "On
Thursday," recalled his neighbor, "his parents tried to reach
him and were reassured by the fact that he doesn't have a
cellphone. He didn't usually call to update them. They
assumed he had hidden away somewhere and therefore was out of
touch, and then later they thought he couldn't call because
the phone system was overloaded. They tried to contact his
friends and acquaintances, but nobody knew anything.
"Eventually they called the emergency center at the yeshiva,
and in a brief conversation were told he had been seen. The
parents didn't ask who had seen him because of the flood of
phone calls on the other end of the line, and that gave them
hope. Later they called to ask who had seen him and where. It
was after 11:00 p.m. and then they answered with less
certainty. They sensed they were trying to avoid saying what
had really happened. Their panic level started to rise.
Eventually, shortly after midnight, they got a knock on the
door from the rav of the town and the doctor and community
representatives, who told them there had been a positive
identification."
At the home of Doron Heherteh of Ashdod, who was 26 at the
time of the massacre, there was also a sense of dread until
they received the bitter news their son had been murdered,
three years after losing another family member in a
tragedy.
"At night we heard from friends about what had happened at
Merkaz HaRav," recalled his sister. "We started to make calls
to find out what had happened, but nobody could provide us
answers. We went through six very difficult hours, during
which you have no idea where he is, whether he's injured,
whether he's alive, whether he's hiding in one of the rooms.
The whole time you don't know what to expect, and just think,
`I hope he stays alive.' Only at 2:00 am did we receive the
bitter news."
Representatives from the Ashdod Municipality and numerous
residents from the neighborhood who wanted to offer the
family emotional support arrived. His sister said he would
constantly say, "I'm going to learn Torah" and that he loved
learning. A ZAKA volunteer told the family that indeed he was
killed while learning: he was found on the open book he had
been studying from.
Thousands took part in the levaya of Ro'i Roth at the
cemetery in Elkana, where the sense of grief was
overwhelming. "All of us are weeping," said a family member
during one of the hespeidim. "You used to always tell
us to be happy, that everything is for the best. You used to
teach us middot and derech eretz. Now it's Rosh
Chodesh Adar, and you were the one who loved to be happy most
of all."
His family members said when they heard about the attack the
family was at home in Elkana and despite efforts to calm him
the father began sobbing bitterly, though he didn't know at
the time that his son had been killed.
All of the eulogizers noted his love of Torah and the
happiness he would instill in everyone, especially when he
saw someone was melancholy. "He was always in a good mood.
Whenever he saw somebody was down he wouldn't leave him until
he had recovered. All he wanted was to sit and learn Torah.
That's what was important to him."
Neria Cohen, 15, was laid to rest at the Mount of Olives. He
is survived by his parents and 11 siblings. "Neria is a
candle of Hashem. He was always surrounded by
kedusha," said his rav. "He was a ben Torah who
toiled in Torah. Divrei Torah were sweeter than honey
for him." His friends also recalled, "He was an industrious
boy, a diligent learner. He loved learning. He always strove
to ensure whatever he did turned out well." Following the
hespeidim he was buried at the cemetery on Erev
Shabbos to the sound of thousands weeping.
