I Forgive You!



I’m still reeling from the tragedy in Israel last week. These 45 people who lost their lives (almost all in their teens and twenties) are our cousins, even if we never met them, and they were special people.

Being so far away, and reading articles from hostile media, it’s so easy to not care at best, or judge them at worst, assuming they were flouting Covid restrictions, being wild and reckless causing a stampede etc.

Here is a story that was shared with me:

Over this past Shabbos, one of the survivors from Meron, gave over something quite unbelievable, when relating his experience: When he was entangled among all the other trampled people, he (this survivor) managed to find a small passage of air that kept him alive. In those precious minutes, this survivor heard another person saying Shema, knowing clearly that he was about to return to His Creator. And then, this victim, after saying Shema, continued: "Whoever is on top of me, I am moychel (forgive) you completely." And those were the last words heard from him.

Think about it. The last words out of his mouth were to the person crushing him, “I forgive you.”

Finally, here is a video from another young father who lost his life. He was a singer, and in this clip, he is singing, “I believe in the coming of Moshiach”. Please watch it: youtube.com/watch?v=60AypGPX7wU

There are many other stories circulating (like the one of a teacher who wrote a beautiful note to a student, and told him to open in until Sunday, two days after he died), but the takeaway is that these were all special people, and they were your cousins.









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