A young rosh yeshivah of my acquaintance recently sent me a lengthy letter written some time back by an avreich in Lakewood to the parents of the three kedoshim kidnapped and murdered in the summer of 2014 — Eyal Yifrach Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel. It brings out as clearly as anything I have read what it means to be a person capable of examining oneself unsparingly and taking the necessary steps to repair what is lacking. At the same time it is a profound meditation on the meaning of ahavas Yisrael.
The writer begins the letter by relating a call he made to a former neighbor and mentor in Yerushalayim on June 30 2014. When he asked his friend how he was he received the surprising reply: “I’m totally tzubrochen (broken).” Taken aback he asked what happened.
“What do you mean what happened?” said the former neighbor. “For 18 days we have been davening so much. Asifos (gatherings) every night so much Tehillim and now this horrific news!”
Through the phone the avreich could feel the palpable pain of his friend one of the senior talmidim in Yeshivas Mir. The pain was not for someone else: The pain of another member of Klal Yisrael was his.
