A Son of Avraham

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As the sheloshim for Yoni draws to an end, we gather here in our beit midrash - the same beit midrash in which he toiled and labored, in which he grew and blossomed. This gathering aims to mourn his tragic, untimely death, but also to evoke his memory. The mourning and the memory will certainly bear different significance and substance for different groups. Those who were close to him, who had the opportunity to know him during his life and to appreciate his exemplary personality, stand today mourning the memory of this young man - this fine person, this ben-Torah. But even those who never got to know him well may still properly regard him as a symbol of identification with the values of the beit midrash, and of aspiration and progress towards the attainment and realization of those values.

We may learn something of the substance of those values, implanted so deeply in Yoni's soul and in his character, by contemplating the image of Avraham our forefather, whose life story we read at this season. Avraham embodied three principal concepts:

1. Knowledge of God - recognizing and understanding Him, including an understanding of His ways and wisdom, and their dissemination in the world: the message of the Torah;

2. Kindness - as expressed in the social sphere, in interpersonal relations, as hinted at by the prophet Micha (7:20), "Show truth to Yaakov, kindness to Avraham," and given special emphasis in the many midrashim describing him as a person who loved his fellow man and performed kindness to all;

3. Love for the Land of Israel and a bond with it - arising, for Avraham, both from the holiness of the land and from the fact that this land was the cradle of the nation and its starting point in the world.

As a descendant of Avraham, Yoni identified with all three of these values and strove to internalize and realize them. Like Avraham in his time, he left a comfortable life far away, moving to Eretz Yisrael in order to study Torah, to grow in his love for it and in his existential connection to it.

Together with his conscientious Torah study, Yoni was characterized by the trait of kindness, which found expression both in his vision of the future and in his activity in the present. His future plans involved working in the field of medicine - an endeavor devoted to kindness, sensitivity and helping others. Together with that future aspiration, he was engaged in the present at all times in acts of kindness and contribution to society. Anyone who has heard about his activities in Glasgow and in England will certainly have been deeply impressed by the enormous amount of giving in which he was involved: his deep involvement in the youth movement, and his aspiration to disseminate God's word and strengthen people's connection to Him.

In addition to all of this, Yoni felt a powerful connection to the Land of Israel. This connection is what caused him to make aliya: although he was to study medicine outside of Israel, he planned to return immediately after his studies.

These three values were not isolated from one another in Yoni's personality; he was able, like Avraham, to weave them into a single organic, integrated, holistic, complete system. Part of that system of values he was able to realize, but most of it remained a dream, a vision and aspiration: a religious moral and spiritual aspiration in general, and an aspiration towards a world of Torah, kindness and connection to Eretz Yisrael in particular. This vision is, for us, Yoni's legacy. These are the values that he has left for us, and it is thus that we remember and mourn him.

May God make of the memory of all that he did - the dream that he left behind and the vision that he realized - a small measure of comfort for us, and especially for his family. May the Holy One comfort all of us, and may Yoni always remain in our thoughts and our memories.

[First printed in Alei Etzion v. 13 (Cheshvan 5765).]