Kivrei Tzaddikim north of the neighborhood • Memorial article

One of the greatest halachic authorities was Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l, and Rosh Yeshiva of thousands of students at Yeshivat Kol Torah in Bayit Vegan in Jerusalem, which is situated at the foot of Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

There was a story that one of his students asked permission from his Rav to take a break from his learning and go to the graves of tzadikim in the Galilee. The Rebbe said to him: "To pray at the graves of tzadikim you must travel up north? Here next to the neighborhood stands Mount Herzl in which holy soldiers who fell as martyrs are buried, it is a worthy thing to pray at their graves."

There is nothing in the hierarchy of Jewish values higher than the value of one who lived and died for the sanctification of the name G-d. We are commanded to be holy. "With all your soul", the Torah says. And Chassidim were eager: When will this verse come to me and I shall fulfill it, to give up their lives and sanctify His name in death.

Our sages have told us about two brothers Papus and Loleinus, who during a decree gave up their lives to rescue the people of Israel, and were killed in Lod. It is not clear who were these brothers, where they were born, how they lived, but we know how they died, and we know what section they were placed by the sages: the section of Mekadshei Hashem barabim, the highest section. It was said about them: 'Those who were killed in Lod, no creature can stand in their midst because of their reward'.

At the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, when throughout the country the alarm was sounded at the height of the day, yeshiva students gathered at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem shelter to hear words of encouragement. The Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz zt"l first began addressing the fighting in the front: "The soldiers," he said, "who risk their lives for our rescue at this time – the entire world cannot stand in their midst. Our obligation is to pray about and for them has no bounds. If for a person who opened the door of his house before his friend Chazal have said that he owes him his life, let alone those who give up their lives, we must thank him without limit."

Such things were also said by Maran Harav Ovadia Yosef zt"l: "Those words of praise spoken about the Lod fatalities, are valid also for the fallen soldiers who risked their lives in Israeli wars and for the savior and rescue of our souls, "minesharim kallu me'arayot gaveru".

These days when it is still evident in Haredi society the harsh and bitter dispute over the conscription law, when a long, dreary winter still reigns over Haredi society, a winter when it was caught on the cusp of a dispute concerning the foundations of faith. On days when the front of the Safra and Saifa was drawn, between the induction center and the yeshiva hall.

These days we should not forget and not be confused: This debate is not about the pure memories of those saints buried in rows in military cemeteries. The military cemetery is outside the conflict.

Those who sacrificed their lives are high above all the debate and controversy. We are partners to the tears and pain for the kedoshim who fell for us. Hashem should remember them favorably with other righteous of the world, and avenge in front of us the spilled blood of His servants.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!