Dear Shaare Family,
This week marks Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut. On Yom Hazikaron, I recall the members of our family who paid the ultimate price in the line of duty, in defense of the Jewish people and Jewish state, and in terror attacks. Some of the hyperlinks below are in Hebrew.
My mother's first cousin Reuven Gvaryahu was a brilliant, sensitive, dedicated and talented soldier who rose rapidly through the ranks of the IDF, and gained renown for his natural leadership skills. My mother set him up with her best friend Chedvah, whom he married in a ceremony in the Old City. He was killed in action during the Yom Kippur War on Hoshana Rabba of 1973, in the Battle of the Chinese Farm. Many of the upper echelons of the leadership of the Jewish state paid condolences to his parents, as his father, Professor Chaim Gevaryahu, was a prominent lecturer in Tanach at Hebrew University and was the founder of the Chidon HaTanach that is still popular today.
Meir Avitzedek (originally Rackovsky), my second cousin, was a 23 year old student of the Chevron Yeshiva who had recently enlisted in the army. His uncompromising principles, deep brilliance and stellar people skills were appreciated both by his peers and superiors in the army and rebbeim in the Yeshiva. He often lectured on Torah topics to non-observant Israelis, with whom he enjoyed an excellent rapport; he was an autodidact who amassed a vast knowledge of philosophy, Hebrew literature and classical music, for whom a bright future in Jewish leadership was prophesied. He was on the verge of his release from the army, and was engaged to be married, when he died at his post during the Neot Hakikar disaster of 1970.
Mordechai Lapid was the husband of my cousin Miriam (Avitzedek, first cousin of the above-mentioned Meir, after whom she named one of her sons), who together had 14 children. Mordechai was an immigrant from Latvia who lived as a refusenik before finally gaining permission to make alilyah. He and his wife were among the original settlers in the Shomron, first in Alon Shvut and then in Kiryat Arba/Chevron. He was a prolific author and poet who wrote on Zionist themes. ֿThe oldest of their children was Shalom Lapid (named for my great-grandfather, Rav Shalom Rackovsky zt”l). Widely renowned as an iluy (Talmudic prodigy), he was already on his way to rabbinic ordination at the age of 19. He enrolled in the Lithuanian Chareidi Ponevezh yeshiva in Bnei brak, a departure from the norm mig from the staunchly religious Zionist family in Kiryat Arba. The story is told that the leadership of the yeshiva was reticent to accept him because of his different background, but the Rosh Yeshiva Rav Elazar Menachem Shach zt”l insisted he be accepted. On December 6, 1993 terrorists opened fire on the vehicle in which the Lapid family was traveling, killing Shalom and Mordechai and injuring three other Lapid children. The double funeral procession left from the Ponevezh Yeshiva, and Rav Shach paid a personal shiva call to the family. The intersection at which they were murdered is now called Tzomet Lapid.
May their memories, and their sacrifice, be for a blessing.
This Week’s MSOTW
Since over a month has passed from the last Rabbi’s Resources, I will remind you of the last MSOTW:
Name as many shuls or institutions as you can come up with, outside of Italy, that have an Aron Kodesh that was removed from defunct Renaissance and Baroque-era Italian shuls. I can think of at least four.
Hint: This communication contains the answer for one of them. Two others can be found, explicitly or alluded to, in previous MSOTWs.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky
