Today, Israel buried her three fallen sons, Gil-Ad Shaer, Eyal Yifrah and Naftali Fraenkel, with an outpouring of grief, unimaginable pain, and Jewish national unity.
When our own words fail us, perhaps it is best to turn to the wisdom of another. Let us remember the words of Hannah Szenes, a young Jewish woman who joined the British Army during World War Two and was captured by the Nazis after she parachuted into Yugoslavia to rescue trapped Hungarian Jews about to be deported to Hitler’s death camps.
Szenes, who never betrayed her comrades despite weeks of brutal torture, wrote this poem just days before she was executed by firing squad at Auschwitz:
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.
B lessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor’s sake.
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
Now, before my words fail me completely, I leave you with images of today’s funeral for three young men who were killed for one reason and one reason only. They were murdered because they were Jews who dared to follow the Jewish dream of living in the nation of Israel.
