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July 31, 2006
They Were Soldiers
From Naomi Regan
Friends,
George is one of my oldest friends. We met over 35 years
ago, new immigrants, in a religious neighborhood in
Jerusalem.
By George M. Stanislawski, Jerusalem
My younger son's brother-in-law had a friend and neighbor,
Major Ro-ie Klein, who was one of the nine Israeli soldiers
killed in action last week. He was in his 30's, married with
3 children.
Ro-ie and some of his men were searching a house
for Hizbullah weapons when a terrorist lobbed a grenade
into their room.
On instinct Ro-ie threw himself on top of
the grenade absorbing the full blast. The other Israeli
soldiers in the room were lightly wounded. Had Ro-ie not
sacrificed himself, the casualties would have been more
tragic.
On Saturday afternoon, our Rabbi gave a lecture on Rambam
(Maimonidies) and Ramban (Nachmonidies) halachic rulings on
warfare when fighting for the Land of Israel. He opened his
remarks by relating the following story:
Two and half weeks ago, he came home to find a young man, in
uniform, barely 21, waiting for him. The young soldier
cheerfully greeted the Rabbi and said "my name is Yiftakh.
I'm your son's commanding officer. Can I meet the rest of
your family?"
Perplexed the Rabbi introduced the young officer to the rest
of the family. After learning all the family members' names,
Yiftakh asked if he could inspect the son's bedroom. The
Rabbi agreed and led him upstairs to his son's bedroom.
While in the bedroom he browsed through the books on the
shelf for several minutes, taking some down and thumbing
through the pages. Yiftakh then requested to be allowed to
go through the Rabbi's son's closet. Agitated, the Rabbi
asked "What do you want!?"
Politely Yiftakh answered, "I'll tell you when we get
downstairs". The two continued downstairs where Yiftakh
continued. . .
"Our unit will be going into battle shortly. This is my
first field command. I believe that to be a good officer.
I must first be a good educator and lead by example. I can
only do that by getting to know every detail about every man
in my squad. That's why I came here today." Our Rabbi stood
amazed by Yiftach's caring, insight and emotional maturity.
Unfortunately Yiftakh's military career was cut short 12
days later. He and 7 of his soldiers were killed in an
ambush in the southern Lebanese village Bint J'Bayel as they
were looking for Hizbullah missiles and rockets that have
wreaked havoc in Israeli population since this war began.
Unlike our superpower portrayal in the western media, Israel
is a small country outnumbered 200 to one by over 1 billion
Muslims. Everyone in Israel knows someone fighting on the
front at this moment. We don't have to look far to know
somebody who is connected to one of this war's casualties.
Our son's brother-in-law and our Rabbi are just two
examples.
Nevertheless, against all odds, we will achieve victory
because we have no other choice. Unlike other nations we're
not allowed the luxury to lose a single war. Against all
odds, we will be victorious because of brave men like Major
Ro-ie Klein and Lieutenant Yiftakh Shreier who valued life
above death.
Hassan Nassralah has often bragged that Hizbullah will win
this war because "the Jews consider life holy --
we, Hizbullah, glorify death". But soldiers like Ro-ie and
Yiftakh will prove Nassrallah wrong.
We will be victorious because historically, sanctifying life
has always triumphed over glorifying death. Intuitively,
Ro-ie and Yiftakh felt this way when they went to and gave
their lives in battle to help save others. We owe it to them
to continue their legacy.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at July 31, 2006 10:33 AM
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