Another Night Funeral

The Jewish custom is to bury the dead as soon as possible, so the nishama soul can return as quickly as possible to Gd and not have to wait. Here in Shiloh we have adopted the Jerusalem custom on nighttime funerals, including after Shabbat.

The little girl, who had fought cancer for about a year, died just before Shabbat. We were notified right after Shabbat, and she was buried last night. At least a couple of hundred people of all ages attended to accompany her body to its grave. We grieve for the loss of life and the pain of the parents, grandparents, siblings, extended family and many friends.

המקום ינחם

HaMakom Yinachem

May Gd Comfort The Mourners...

Who Died?

The other day, on the bus going home from Jerusalem, traffic was suddenly stopped when dozens of chareidi men marched across the street together. 

They were quiet and orderly, except for the simple fact that they didn't stop at the red light to let vehicular traffic go by. We'd all seen these phenomena before. They must have had been off to a funeral, so you could hear the expected question wandering around the bus:

"Who Died?" 

I never heard an answer.

An Awful Thing Happened Before Work

Yesterday just as I was about to sign into work at Yafiz I checked my mail and discovered awful news. The daughter of friends passed away, and the funeral was in just a couple of hours. I quickly told my boss who said "go, now," which I did.

Since I had just done a large shopping, I left it in the store and sent a note to the Shiloh email that I needed someone to bring it home. When my husband got home, he sent another email, and somebody we (or at least he didn't recognize) don't even know picked it up and brought to us.

There was another complication getting to the funeral, which was in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem. The bus is only every thirty minutes, and apparently I had just missed one. I decided to walk in the direction from the Central Bus Station in the hope that I'd find a cab for most of the way. But I was mistaken. There were few, and they were full.

Suddenly I saw one with a passenger pull up by the gas station towards the entrance to the city and get gas. When it finished and passed me it stopped and asked where I was headed.

"The Cemetery," I answered.
"Hop in," the driver replied.
"Are you going to the funeral from the bus accident?" asked the passenger.
"No, a young mother died of cancer."

We were each deep in our thoughts...

When we reached the cemetery, I asked how much to pay.

"Nothing," said the passenger.
"I'll give charity," I responded.
"Thank you," he said.

And we each went to our separate funerals...

Following Crowds, The Funeral of the Three Murdered Teenagers

In my many decades, being of pension age I'm no youngster, I've learned that at times one must just go with the flow. There are many times we just find ourselves in places or opportunities unplanned.

I must admit that I don't make it a principle to go to funerals or shiva (condolence) calls when I'm not actually acquainted with the people. If anything my "principle" has been to avoid those public occasions. I've been to too many funerals of terror victims whom I actually knew and visited and helped at homes of the victims. Before the three teenage boys' bodies were discovered (davka by a civilian crew led by a Shiloh neighbor) I kept feeling haunted by the similarities of the photos the families Fraenkel, Sha'ar and Yifrach had given to the media to show of their sons hiking the Land to photos of Yonatan Eldar, Shmuel Yerushalmi and Avi Siton, HaYa"D. Those three teenagers were all from my neighborhood and all three had also been murdered by Arab terrorists, and the pictures were so familiar. All one needed to do was to Photoshop their faces, and you'd think they were the same exact boys, Eyal, Naftali and Gil-Ad, HaYa"D. Deja vu...

When I got my schedule for this week, I was surprised to have Tuesday off, since I had been working Tuesdays of late. I do work part-time and had given my boss a lot of leeway in scheduling me. I really didn't know what to do. It was too hot to try to visit a cousin in Tel Aviv; the Israel Museum isn't open Tuesday morning. And my daughter had asked me to babysit on Monday. So then when it was announced Monday night that the boys's bodies had been discovered, I began pondering the idea of going to the funeral. It was cinched when I got a message that there would be buses from Shiloh. We were to only attend the last part, the joint burial. That made sense, and was logistically the most sensible, also the safest, health-wise, for us to do. No doubt that most of the people who needed medical care had been to one of the earlier eulogy parts of the funerals in the various communities the boys were from. Our bus picked up people on the way who already looked close to collapse. They told us that they were coming from Talmon and their bus had broken down.

Since I'm not going to repeat/copy the article I posted on Shiloh Musings, please click here to read it. And of course I'm interested in your comments. Please share it, too, thanks.

Funeral of Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Sha’ar and Naftali Fraenkel, HaYa"D

Two Funerals and a Wedding

Yes, that was yesterday.  In under twenty-four, more like fifteen hours I attendeded two funerals and a wedding.

Just after Shabbat, we got the terrible news that a neighbor's two decade fight to survive a failed liver was over.  Fourteen years ago he received a liver transplant. The doctors were amazed at how long he had survived his very precarious medical situation and numerous crises, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end...  G-d willing, bli neder, (don't consider this an oath) I'll blog about him in a few days when I can do his life and contributions justice.

Then in the morning, an sms from the Shiloh office informed us that the father of a different neighbor had passed away; the funeral was in Jerusalem.  Since my plan was to got to a wedding in Bnai Brak at night, I didn't even think I'd made the funeral, but the neighbor who was driving me called to say that since he studies regularly with the husband, we'd be leaving a couple of hours early for the wedding and going via the funeral.

There was another death announcement early afternoon that a different neighbor's brother had passed away.  How is it that after no such announcements for weeks, or was it months, there should be three in just a few hours?

It was rather surreal, dancing and singing and being so joyful after burying two very special people.  Tears of joys combined with tears of sorrow.  One should never compromise on the simcha, joy of a wedding.  A new family and new lives begin under the chuppah, marriage canopy.

May all live long, healthy, fulfilling and contributing lives...

And may the memories of the dead be blessed, yihi zichram baruch, יהי זכרם ברוך

Ups and Downs

Referring to my the Start Fresh kosher diet. Concerning the diet, my mood is up and weight is going down. That's what it should be.

Today, I'll be up and down in other ways, too.

In another hour, I'll be going down to Tel Shiloh for our monthly Rosh Chodesh Prayers. That's the women's prayers on the first of the Jewish Month. This month is Tevet. If you'd like updates/notifications, please let me know. I also have a Facebook group for it.

Then a different "down," we'll be at a funeral here in Shiloh. More on that later.

Paying Tribute to a Chalutz, Pioneer

Shiloh has seen many enormous funerals in the past, and they all had something in common. The person being buried was murdered by Arab terrorists, and people came, because it had been headlined in the news.

Yesterday, again, we had mobs and mobs of people and a long line of buses. But this time we weren't burying a victim of Arab terror, we were burying a young chalutz, pioneer, Yossi Shuker.

I had planned on posting the pictures with my report of the funeral, but photobucket wasn't cooperating. Read this for more about Yossi. Actually I sent it to work as a Reading Comprehension exercise with questions as one of the lesson plans for my students, since I took the day off in order to attend the funeral. My boss was very understanding when I requested to be allowed to attend the funeral. It's one of those things in Israel that funerals are considered great mitzvot, commandments from G-d, and even on a workday, you'll see relatively large numbers of people attending.

There are a lot of pictures, and I'll just post them without commentary. They begin with the cars and buses accompanying the body from his home in Givat Achiyah, northeast of Shiloh, a community he and his wife Ronit founded. And the last picture is just after the funeral, a group of men saying the mincha, afternoon prayer, while the last people are leaving the cemetery.

If you have any questions, just "comment."

Shiva ending and flowers at the last of the sun

I've been popping in every day for a few minutes at the shiva house. It's strange. I was on the "Vaadat Klita" when they all arrived. And then at the funeral, I did the "kriyah," the knife cut on the mourner's clothes. I feel responsible. The clan enjoyed their 16 years here, but they're moving on. Within a short time, only the old woman, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother in her grave will remain in Shiloh.

Tonight's the last night of the shiva. Tomorrow morning they "get up" and go to the grave to say goodbye.

Walking home, the light was strange. It was that "last light" just before dusk. The pictures didn't come out very well, but they match my mood.