Mercaz Harav
Lamed Adar
March 6, 2008 was Erev Rosh Chodesh Adar Beis. Most of the students in Yeshivas Yerushalayim l’Tzeyrim (Yashlatz) were in the beis medrash, preparing for that night’s Rosh Chodesh Adar party. Several Yashlatz students, not wanting to interrupt their learning, moved to the library of Yeshivas Mercaz Harav, on the same campus. Many of the students had attended the mass prayer rally at the Kosel that afternoon, and were looking forward to catching up on their learning.
At 8:30 p.m., terrorist Alaa Abu Dhein entered the yeshiva campus. He pulled out a gun and opened fire on students standing near the entrance, killing 3. He then went into the library, killing 5 students. The attack was stopped 16 minutes later my Captain David Shapira and Yitzchak Dadon, a Mercaz Harav student. After 16 minutes of fire, 8 boys were dead-5 from the high school, and 3 from the yeshiva.
The 8 boys were:
Neriya Cohen, 15
Segev Peniel Avichayil, 15
Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar,
Avraham David Moses, 16
Yochai Lifshitz, 17
Roi Roth, 18
Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 18
Doron Maharate, 26.
Neriya Cohen
At the time of his murder, Neriya was 15 years old, with 12 siblings. He grew up in the Arab Quarter in the Old City of Yerushalayim. Neriya is remembered most for his joy in life, his love for Eretz Yisrael, and his fealty to his idea of the truth.
His chavrusah Yehuda remembers his notebooks.
“Neriya had a notebook where he summarized all the questions and answers of the Rishonim and Acharonim, along with his own questions. He kept his notebooks hidden from his classmates.”
Yehuda wrote:
“Neriya’s most noticeable characteristic was his ability to make us laugh and be happy. Once, in 8th grade, we needed to collect money for our class fund. Neriya said he had an idea of how to collect the money. He announced to everyone that the next day we would all go to the pool, and that we should come to his house at the appointed time, and to bring ten shekel. When we got to his house the next day, we saw that he had purchased a plastic kiddy pool for twenty shekel, and had filled it with water. The boys weren’t very happy, but Neriya didn’t pay attention. He put on his bathing suit, sat down in the pool, and started splashing everybody. In a few minutes, we were all having a huge water fight, and everybody was happy and laughing.”
Segev Peniel Avichayil
Segev, the oldest in his family, lived in the Arab Quarter of the Old City in Yerushalayim. As a young child, and growing up, Segev was gentle and sensitive.
He loved learning, and he loved tefila. He once wrote a note to his mother that said, “Yehi ratzon sheyihiyeh lach harbeh yeladim gedolim kedoshim-May it be Hashem’s will that you have many holy children."
Segev was neat and precise in everything he did. He made schedules for everything, set aside time for learning Torah.
Segev loved reading and learning. He took piano lessons and taught himself how to play flute. On motzaei Shabbos he’d go with friends to Sha’arei Tzedek to perform for the patients.
When Segev was 12, he was injured in a drive-by shooting attack. A piece of shrapnel lodged in his chest, and was never removed. Segev spoke about what he learned: “Not to worry, and to dwell on what might have happened, but rather on how to improve ourselves and learn even more from the event. The main thing I have learned is that Hashem oversees everything that happens, and intervenes only for the best.”
Segev was given 3 more years, where he became bar mitzvah, learned and grew.
His friend Menachem Tzvi wrote:
“It was very hard for me not to be with you at your funeral, but I never dreamed I would be faced with such a dilemma-having to choose which of my friends I would accompany on their last journey. Yonadav, Avraham David, Yonatan, or you? Eventually I decided that, after you found the answer to your question, I had a chance to take leave, in a sense, of you and Yonadav. We had come full circle. Fine. But with Yonatan, it was all so sudden. They said he was in the hospital, and then they announced…so I really want to apologize to you, and I hope you will forgive me for not being there at your funeral.”
The night of the murders, Segev’s father found this poem on his desk. It was apparently written about the Lamed Hei, a convoy of 35 soldiers ambushed and killed trying to break the siege of Gush Etzion in 1948.
Here lie souls
In a long, long line,
White and black, colors and voices;
They are all intermingled
And suddenly it becomes clear:
They are in two rows.
They don’t approach each other-the whole night long;
Black (with a white hue) and white (with a black hue) in a row.
A soul that is gone, a soul that is here,
And they are all of one body.
A soul that murdered, a heinous soul,
A soul that lusts for death.
There is justice! And there is a judge!
They cry out,
And to each other they wail:
Kadosh! Kadosh! They call out.
Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar
Yonatan grew up in Shilo, the 6th of 8 children.
Yonatan did everything thoroughly. He made a schedule with times for everything, with a lot of time for studying halacha. His favorite halacha sefer was the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch. Whenever he had questions, in halacha or Yiddishkeit, he would text different rabbis. He texted many rabbis so he wouldn’t bother any too often.
He was extremely talented with computers, and always helped everyone with technical support. Yonatan’s principal remembers coming into his office and seeing Yonatan sitting at his desk, working intently on newsletter. Yonatan would not even notice him come in. Everything he did, he gave 100% to.
He was always happy, a happiness that shone through everything he did.
Yonatan, beloved brother, Bnei Akiva counselor, son and friend, was learning Daf Yomi when he was killed, and was buried along with his blood-stained gemara.
Avraham David Moses
As a child, Avraham David was interested in everything. He loved learning and was full of multifaceted knowledge. As he grew older, he got more and more serious, til his focus was only on Torah. He neglected eating and sleeping and learned the whole day. Naftali Moses worried about his son. They argued, often. If the body is a house for the neshamah, do you need to care for it?
Avraham David said no. Naftali urged him to speak to his rosh yeshiva, and finally Avraham David agreed. They spoke on Wednesday; Avraham David was killed on Thursday. Naftali never heard what Avraham David’s rosh yeshiva told him.
When a sample of his handwriting was needed, Avraham David wrote:
“The Torah is what gives this world meaning, and it is fitting to occupy oneself with Torah study. The Torah infuses us with life and is sweeter than honey. It stimulates every channel of our minds and is the truest form of satiation for our ravenous souls. All other forms of enjoyment that man takes pleasure in, solely for the sake of pleasure, do not satisfy us, but only serve to deceive our souls. It is a positive commandment to study Torah. Learning Torah is as valuable as the sum of all the other mitzvot, and is what upholds the entire world.”
His step-mother Leah wrote:
The Wedding Canopy
One day
I thought
There’d be a chuppah
And a bride.
We’d sing
And dance
And take you
Toward
Your future.
One day
After thirty days
Of mourning there was a chuppah
But no bride.
We sang and danced
And took a Torah Scroll
To your school.
I thought
There’d be a chuppah
And we’d celebrate
Your life.
I was wrong.
There was a chuppah
And we celebrated
Your death.
Yochai Lifshitz
Yochai, 17, lived in the Old City of Yerushalayim. He was the 2nd of 6 children.
His father is a mashgiach of Yeshivat HaKotel and Yochai grew up surrounded by Torah learning.
Yochai’s most outstanding quality was his diligence. Diligence in everything he did-limud haTorah, tefila, secular studies, exercise.
Yochai never missed a tefilah since his bar mitzvah, and from the 1st day of 9th grade, til the last day of his life, was in the beis medrash every morning at 6:45, wearing his tefillin.
Yochai was like a “ner tamid” in the beis medrash. He was always there, learning.
He never wasted a minute. He never spoke during seder. He ran every night for two years, though people laughed.
If there was something that needed to be done, Yochai quietly volunteered. He believed Torah scholars should not have to help around the yeshiva, but that never stopped him from taking his turn.
He saw the best in everyone, and made time to learn with weaker, unmotivated boys.
A teacher in Yeshivat HaKotel said,
“His most outstanding quality was his innocence. He had a constant desire to search for his own truth, whether it was to rise before everyone and go to synagogue to study before morning prayer or practice for his army service.”
Ro'i Aharon Roth
Roi, 18, was the 2nd of 5 children. He lived in Elkana.
Roi had incredible self-control. He took Jiu-Jitsu lessons for 9 years and was physically very strong.
He loved people, and used his strength to defend small children.
He loved reading and learning, and always had a book in hand.
He had a constant smile on his face. He greeted everyone he saw with a giant bear hug. Roi spread joy wherever he went.
Learning was hard for him, and he put tremendous kochos into it.
What stood out about Roi the most was his tefila. When Roi davened, it was just him and Hashem, no one else.
He was always one of the first in, and one of the last out of the beis medrash. He frequently came late to meals, he would still be davening. Roi took on many kabbalos in tefila. He never lifted his eyes from his siddur during tefila. When he davened, he stood in one place, and did not walk around.
Roi’s brother Dvir recalls his tefila.
“I only heard Roi pray once as shliach tzibbur. When Roi led prayers, there wasn’t a single dry eye in the sanctuary because his prayer on a regular weekday was like the prayer recited on Yom Kippur. Roi was able to touch every one of our hearts! when Roi called out, “Shema Yisrael!” and “Amen, Yehei shmei raba,” his prayers penetrated the walls of the beit midrash, and rose up to the Heavens and broke through the gates of Gan Eden.”
As much as Roi grew, he did not leave this world. He grew into a complete, shalem person.
Roi’s 10 year old brother wrote:
“Roi was a great tzaddik, and very devoted and helpful to his friends. He played with me on the computer and on the court all the time, and watched cartoons on TV with me.
Roi and I were together a lot, and he made me pizza with a special flavor that only he knew how to make. If I needed help with my schoolwork, with my tests, or with friends, Roi was always there for me.
Roi would sing with me, teach me how to fight with Judo moves, and sit and recite Tehillim with me. Roi always smiled with a magnificent smile, he always had a smile on his face-whether inside or outside the home.”
Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld
Yonadav lived in Kochav Hashachar, the 5th of 14.
Yonadav loved life, and embraced living with everything he had.
He never stopped moving. When he was 2, he rode to the settlement gate in his toy car, and the security guard called his family to take him home.
He never did homework and never studied, but still did well in school. He was curious about everything and read encyclopedias in his spare time.
Yonadav started writing when he was about five or six years old. He wrote satirical and serious poems and stories, and had no compunctions making up words to express his feelings.
Yonadav became a teenager at age 7. Numerous academic and spiritual crises later, he graduated elementary school stronger and with firm yiras shamayim.
Yonadav blossomed in Yashlatz. He called his high school years the “best four years of my life.”
Yonadav never used the stairs, he used the banisters as slides. He loved hiking and often went on long hikes with his youth group.
He taught himself to play the recorder. He didn’t care what others thought of him and would walk down the street playing his recorder.
Yonadav loved children. He spent a lot of time with his younger siblings, making up stories to keep them happy.
Yonadav was very close to his great grandmother. He visited her every week for years, straight through high school. He also visited her the Thursday of the attack.
Yonadav finished Shas (of Mishnayos) regularly. His goal was to learn Mishnayos 101 times before he turned 23. Yonadav, the boy who never stopped moving, learned 18 chapters of mishnayos every day, usually late at night. If he didn’t have time in the day to finish learning mishnayos, he’d go to the beis medrash at 2 a.m. to finish.
Yonadav was friends with the younger boys. Yonadav was standing at the entrance to the dorm, talking with two 10th graders, when the terrorist shot him in the back. Yonadav went inside to escape when he collapsed. He was found holding his recorder in one hand and the sefer Shev Shma’atsa in the other, a big smile on his face.
Yonadav wrote a poem titled “Iyov in the Holocaust.”
It starts:
And man said to G-d, “Where are You?”
And G-d was in the Heavens, and man upon the earth.
“Why, Israel, do you say: My way is hidden from Hashem?”
Say rather: “His way is hidden from me.”
The poem ends:
G-d of vengeance, arise!
G-d of vengeance, shine forth!
And the saviors shall go up to judge the mount of Esau.
And His land shall be purified-by His people.
Doron Maharate
Doron, 26, was born in Ethiopia in 1981. When he was 10, he immigrated to Israel and moved to Ashdod.
Doron quickly learned Hebrew and worked hard to study Torah. After 10th grade, he switched to Mercaz Harav so he could learn more. He was in the process of taking all his semichah tests when he was killed.
He worked with Ethiopian immigrant children at an after school program.
Whenever Doron went home for Shabbos, he would learn with his father and his brothers. They studied Torah in Amharic.
Doron had a strong work ethic. He supported himself in the years he learned in Mercaz.
Doron was always smiling. No one ever saw him get angry. He learned for years with a disabled terror victim and was always very patient.
The children in the center he worked in wrote letters to his family.
“To Doron the tzaddik,
We are sad that you died, and we hope that you will come back when the mashiach arrives. We had so much fun with you at the center. I remember you told us that you would be dressing up on Purim like your mother.
I hope you come back when the Mashiach arrives.