“Who among us has ever considered being greeted by Hashem with the words ‘I love you?’ I know I haven’t”
Rabbi Yonoson Rosenblum’s article “Enduring Gifts” was a moving and penetrating tribute to our soldiers who live and die with a full understanding of kiddush Hashem.
One correction must be noted, and that is the name of the yeshivah where Yakir Hexter and David Schwartz Hy”d learned. Yeshivat Har Etzion was founded 55 years ago in Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion, commonly known as “the Gush,” under the leadership of Rav Yehuda Amital and Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zichronam livrachah. It became one of the first Hesder yeshivos and a leader in the Hesder movement and in Torah education, particularly in the Religious Zionist world.
The two young men mentioned in the article join a list of 20 members of the yeshivah family (students, graduates, and family members) who have fallen in this war. They join eight students, ten per cent of the pioneer class of the yeshivah, who fell in the Yom Kippur War during the formative years of the yeshivah.
Alan Schwartz
Beit Shemesh
[Har Etzion 5739/1978-79]
During my early Shabbos morning Mishpacha read, it was a bittersweet surprise to see the picture of Yakir Hexter and David Schwartz Hashem yinkom damam, who were talmidim of Yeshivat Har Etzion. I had seen the picture and wept when it was posted on the Facebook page of Rabbi Avi Ganz, who directs Darkaynu, a program for young men with special needs at Har Etzion. (A force in the establishment of the Darkaynu program at the yeshivah was Rabbi Moshe Taragin, whom Mr. Rosenblum quotes eulogizing these two young kedoshim.)
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