...there are still some very wonderful things about living here in Israel, very Jewish things.
One thing which impresses me anew every time is how many people show up to funerals. And here in Israel funerals aren't just for adults. And here in Israel one doesn't dress up in goyish (Christian) black.
Last night we got the expected alert via the dreaded "beeper" that our neighbor Penina's neshama tehora, pure soul had joined her precious son's in Olam Haba, The Next World. Her body, which had caused her so much pain these past few years was laid to rest in our Shiloh Cemetery, near her Avi's.
Penina, ZaTza"L, wasn't a famous public figure. Even after her son's murder by Arab terrorists, the family stayed far from the headlines and media. Moshe and Penina concentrated their love and energies on their living children. All the bereaved parents I'm acquainted with react differently.
Last night, at 11:30pm when I approached the cemetery I was totally amazed by the masses, the hundreds and hundreds of people, young and old from all over the country. How on a Saturday night, after Shabbat, had so many people heard the news?
Our cemetery, the slope overlooking it and the area under to the road and all around the graves, were mobbed, packed with people. There was such silence, such sadness. On one hand we were all glad that she was no longer in pain, but we had all been praying for a miracle, a miracle which would have mocked the doctors' predictions.
Erev Rosh Hashannah, we, obviously are in need of more tzaddikim, holy people in G-d's World to plead for Redemption, bimhaira biyamainu, speedily in our days.
2 comments:
I 'like' Israeli funerals, for now. People come from work, and go back to work. People do not go home to 'dress up' in black. There are no expensive and temporary wreaths to leave and rot on the grave. Many men will get their shoes dirty to shovel dirt. Family members outbursts and yelling will be tolerated and will not later be the subject of gossip.
Unfortunately, the goyish customs are creeping into the Israeli funerals; people will change into black, and companies will splurge on wreaths. I hope people will discourage these new 'customs'.
The most beautiful funerals I've attended were here in Shiloh. No, I'm not the morbid type. Our customs are Torah and sensitive to the mourners. The families decide.
The army does wreaths and they sicken me.
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