Yoni the Tzaddik

This translation originally appeared in Alei Etzion vol. 13 (Cheshvan 5765). Our dear talmid, Yoni Jesner, 19, of Glasgow, Scotland was one of six people killed when a suicide terrorist detonated a bomb in Dan bus No. 4 on Allenby Street, opposite the Great Synagogue in Tel-Aviv on September 19, 2002.

R. Shmuel bar Nachmani once approached R. Yonatan bar Elazar, who was standing in the marketplace.  He said to him, “Teach me something.”

He answered, “Go to the house of study and I will teach you there.”

He said, “Rabbi – this is not [in accordance with] what you have taught me [in the past]: ‘Wisdom calls outside’ (Mishlei 1:20) – outside of [the place of] Torah.”

He replied: “A pearl – where is it sold?  Not outside.  Pearls and precious stones – where are they sold; is it not in their proper place?  They are not taken to vendors of vegetables, onions and garlic, but rather to a place of merchants; not outside.  Likewise Torah: it is taught in its environs, as it is written, ‘Wisdom calls outside, in the squares she gives voice.’  What is the meaning of the expression, ‘ba-rechovot, in the squares’?  In a place where they expand (marchivin) upon her.  And where do people expand upon Torah?  In synagogues and study houses.” (Midrash Tanchuma, Bechukotai, 3)

Rabbi Yonatan ben Elazar understood the verse to mean that the place for learning is in the beit midrash.  But this midrash is not opposed to the literal meaning of the verse: in order to teach Torah outside, one must devote a certain amount of time to study within the beit midrash.  It is natural that it should be so: everyone comes to the yeshiva and devotes his time to studying, with the intention that afterwards, the wisdom of Torah will “give voice in the squares.”

I did not know Yoni before he came to the yeshiva, but I know that he was constantly engaged in spreading Torah on the outside.  To suddenly come to a beit midrash, and then to engage constantly in receiving rather than giving – this requires special strength.  He had to hold himself back.  Concerning the verse, “From this midst of it was like the color of chashmal” (Yechezkel 1:4), Rashi explains:

“Chashmal” – [this refers to] an angel, who was named thus… [The Rabbis] also explain that this word is a composite (chash and mal) – sometimes silent (chashot) and sometimes speaking (memalelot).

The angel was able to hold himself back: “Now I am receiving rather than giving;” “Now I am giving.”  A person who is completely engrossed in spreading Torah, who suddenly enters the beit midrash and holds himself back – this is an angelic power, an unusual power.

It has already been stated that Yoni spent his life sanctifying God’s Name, and also died in sanctification of His Name.  If it is decreed that someone must leave the world, then it is a great privilege to depart in sanctification of God’s Name.  “For Your sake we are slain all the day” – if a person is killed because he is a Jew, there is a dimension of sanctification of God’s Name.  The sanctification is magnified since his family decided to donate his organs – to perform kindness as widely as possible.

I want to take this opportunity to protest against the malice of the European press.  A week ago I received a call from the mother of one of our students from Switzerland.  She told me about a television program in Paris, in which Yoni’s brother participated.  During the program it was mentioned that the family had donated the organs, and this fact was then manipulatively used against Israel: they claimed that none of his organs would have reached Arab patients had the family not specifically requested it.  As though the family chooses who receives the organs!   They know that there is a waiting list; the donor does not choose the recipient.  But the press maliciously chose to exploit this tragic situation.

In conclusion, I would like to make a proposal to Yoni’s friends and to everyone.  It is customary to study mishnayot in memory of a person who passes away.  Take upon yourselves to perform some act of kindness in Yoni’s memory, look for some special way to perform good deeds so that it will be a “chesed for Yoni.”  To talk is easy, but this goes beyond talking.  If we succeed, then we have done something great in his memory.

We are accustomed to using the term “tzaddik” in relation to people who are old, people who are great.  But gradually we are starting to see the picture of Yoni’s life unfold before us.  Though he was only  a young man, I think of him as “Yoni the Tzaddik.”  Here was a young man who acted selflessly in order to study in Israel.  What an exalted level!  For us he is an inspiration; we should learn from his actions, from his dreams, from his aspirations, from his vision.

May his memory be blessed.