one of MINE

While it’s true that tonight starts the 2nd day of Iyar, not the 4th which is when we normally celebrate Yom HaZikaron, Israeli remembrance day, the Rabbis felt they should move it all up making today Yom HaZikaron.

So since today is Yom HaZikaron, a day when we remember Israel’s fallen heroes, i thought i would tell you a little bit about just one of them... it’s a personal story VERY Close to my heart.


Yehoshua (Jason) Friedberg (HY"D) was born and
raised in Montreal, not far from where I was raised and continue to live. Yehoshua went through the religious school system in Montreal, and upon completion, left for Israel to study in a hesder yeshiva and complete military service as a Chayal Boded (literally a lonely solider), a foreign volunteer in the prestigious Golani Brigade (Gdud 51... KAVOD!). He was planning to enter the officer's training course, he was three days short of completing his initial enlistment, when on Purim, 15 years ago, he was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists and shot with his own weapon. His body was dumped by the side of a highway where it was found three days later, after a massive manhunt by Israeli General Security Service personnel.

Yehoshua was the embodiment of true Zionism. He left the comfort of a safe North American city with a sizable and influential Jewish community so that he could contribute to the defense and development of the Jewish state. He enrolled in an institution of higher religious education to further encourage himself with the traditions that are meant to guide Jews and Israelis, and then set out to defend those traditions and those people simply because he was one of them.

Yehoshua was a very special young man. Poorer students would often ask him for a loan which he gladly gave. When the student came to repay the loan, Yehoshua would show in his notepad that the amount was already crossed out and refused to take the person's money! Yehoshua was very careful about saying or hearing lashon hara (evil speech). When people said something derogatory in his presence, he would simply walk out of the room to show his displeasure. Yehoshua loved learning and teaching Torah, and when he was home, he volunteered to teach Gemarra to the members of our shul. He was a natural communicator, and people marvelled at his teaching abilities. Yehoshua was once a member of my community, the son of my parents’ friends and it was in his merit that I was blessed with the chance to go learn in Israel.
May G-d avenge his blood, which should be immortalized. Yehi Zichro Baruch.

It is amazing how today we will sit, in Israel there is no school, the soldiers, seminaries, yeshivas and high schools all go to Har HaZaitim, where the soldiers are buried... and we all pay our respects. We daven at their graves and we cry for our fallen heroes. Our brothers, our sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins, uncles and aunts, boyfriends, girlfriends and best friends we remember that they did not fall in vain, and we PROMISE them that they will be remembered. Today we reflect on all they did for us, we have a moment of silence where we thank them and remember them. Then as soon as the sun goes down at a moment when all becomes dark again, we celebrate all that the did for us... we have fireworks and BBQs and parties. We do all this, because we will not sit around and be sad, they did NOT die for no reason... so as we say 'vayehi erev vayehi boker' (first it was night then it was day) we have sadness and despair in the darkness of the night... but it is always followed by the joy and hope of the day. So today we are sad... today, we remember with tears and reverence... and tomorrow we remember with celebration... telling them that we will continue to live the life they fought for us to have... we WILL continue to LIVE