Naftali Frankel, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrach
Tes Vav Sivan
THE BEGINNING
June 12, 2014 started off as a regular Thursday. For the eleventh graders of Yeshiva Mekor Chaim, it was their last day of school. Naftali Frankel and Gil-Ad Shaer, both 16, lived near each other, and decided to hitchhike home together. Carrying all of their belongings from yeshiva, they caught a ride from the Alon Shvut junction, together with Eyal Yifrach, a 19 year old yeshiva student in Shavei Chevron. It was not Eyal’s last day of school; he was simply trying to get home for Shabbos. The driver and passenger in the car wore yarmulkas, and the car had Israeli plates. They were not Jews, but Arab terrorists, determined to kidnap, hide, and torture Jews. The boys realized in minutes something was very wrong. Gil-Ad quietly called the police on his phone. When the kidnappers heard him call, they shot and murdered the boys. It was 10:30 p.m. The police dismissed the call as a prank and the call was ignored.
At midnight, some of the parents, Avi and Racheli Frankel, Ofir and Bat-Galim Shaer, and Uri and Irit Yifrach started getting nervous. Racheli said, “I was thinking in the direction of a car accident, but then everything unraveled very quickly.” After making some phone calls, the Frankels and Shaers discovered that their sons were together. The police were called, and the search began.
THE MIDDLE
For 18 days we waited. We added perakim of tehillim to every tefillah. We learned more and davened harder. Took on kabbalos. Brought in Shabbos early. Most of all, we worked on our Ahavas Yisrael.
On the first Friday, the families requested that everyone light early. “Candle lighting time has the power to bring salvation, and we ask everyone, even those who do not regularly pray, to pray for the success of the IDF in search of the missing boys. We ask all of Am Yisrael to pray for the three missing boys that they return home safely to their families.”
The 3 mothers were sources of strength. They stood up and spoke about emunah and trust and Hashem, time and again.
On the first Sunday, 25,000 gathered at the Kosel, to daven and sing. Irit Yifrach said, “I know that our children are on their way home. I feel it. I am very serene because God is watching over our children.
“I look at this test that God has set before me, and I pray that He will rescue my son Eyal and Gil-Ad and Naftali. This is a big test for all of us.”
Bat-Galim spoke: “We are going through a difficult time in these last few days and I want to hug the people of Israel with a big embrace, an embrace of gratitude. An embrace of prayer. Gil-Ad is strong, and I am sure that Naftali and Eyal are strong too…I want to ask the people of Israel to continue praying and being together. Continue giving that strength to our children, and with the help of God, with the power of this togetherness we will succeed.”
In the boys’ yeshivos, students learned and davened around the clock. “We are completely out of routine,” said Shavei Chevron Rosh Yeshiva Rav Chananel Etrog. “Now, when we need extra zechuyot, the bochurim have undertaken shifts to learn throughout the day and night.”
The parents spoke to their sons and the world through the media. Ofir Shaer said: “I’m waiting to wrap you in the tallis and make Bircas Kohanim and to protect you. I daven that we see all three of the boys here, quicky, beside us. All three, Gil-Ad, Naftali, and Eyal, are the children of all of us.”
Racheli Frankel said, “Naftali, your father and mother and siblings love you to no end. The nation of Israel is turning the world upside down in order to bring you home.”
While davening at the Kosel, a group of girls walked over to Racheli to tell her that they were davening for the boys’ safe return.
Racheli told them: “I believe with wholehearted faith that my Naftali will come home. But I want you to promise me, that no matter what happens, you won’t be crushed or broken, that you won’t lose faith. We must remember that Hashem is not our employee. He doesn’t always do as we wish.”
In an interview the next week she said, “We repeatedly requested people to pray, and people from different faiths, and people that are secular. They each have their own way of sending positive energy, whatever it takes, and prayer means a lot to me. I just want it clear and I kind of repeated myself a few times: Prayer is very powerful but it’s not a guarantee for anything.
“I didn’t know they were taking pictures then (at the Kosel) but I think the words they caught me saying were, “God doesn’t work for us.” Just because I’m praying with all my heart. It might help. I believe it could help, especially when thousands and millions are praying. They are. But nobody owes me anything. And if tomorrow, God forbid, I’ll hear the worst news, I don’t want my children to feel that where did all my prayers go? It was a group of children I don’t know and I feel a responsibility. God forbid, it shouldn’t be a crisis for them.”
Gil-Ad was an only boy with five sisters. Ofir Shaer said, “I cannot lose my only son.”
Eyal’s grandfather, R’ Amram Yifrach spoke. “Even though we must not be sad on the holy day, the thoughts come unbidden. Since he learns nearby, he always joins us for Shabbat meals when he stays in yeshivah. For the last two weeks, his seat has been empty and the thoughts keep haunting us: ‘Where is Eyal now? Is he being tortured? Is he screaming? Is he conscious? Is he even alive?
“Uri’s restraint and endurance is strengthening the rest of us. The rav of the community came to me and told me that until he saw me, he didn’t know where this powerful emunah peshutah comes from, and then he heard I came from Chevron-the land that was given as a gift for faith and fortitude.”
Some people focused on physical hishtadlus. A social media campaign was started - #BringBackOurBoys. The mothers traveled to Geneva to beg the international community to help bring their children home.
On Sunday night, June 29, a massive rally was held in Tel Aviv's Kikar Rabin square. 100,000 people sang and recited tehillim.