Rabbi Avraham Weinrib of Zichron Eliezer in Cincinnati, OH

since October 7th all of us have been in awe at the self-sacrifice of the many soldiers who are standing at the front lines defending our homeland defending the Jewish people tragically we've also read time and time again of the soldiers who have been ripped away from their families at too young of an age the devastation is overwhelming how do we properly memorialize so many people it's too much the Orthodox Union started an initiative called to demonstrate to those in Israel that we are together we are we're with you we're thinking of you and we're going to memorialize these soldiers forever the 3 weeks is a time that we try to rectify the disharmony that broke the Jewish people that ripped us apart and so specifically during this time we're going to be reaching out to different shows to different leaders of the shows to find out from them what they did how they connected to their Soldier how they brought more Unity to the Jewish people and how they're bringing Comfort to the family of their Bev Soldier I'm honored to be hosting a friend and colleague uh of Ra wi of zran elzar in Cincinnati Ohio uh an incredible R who really revolutionized the Cincinnati community in many ways R wiev thank you again for being with us really appreciate it um so could you tell me a little bit about the soldier that your show that your show was connected to sure thank you firstly for inviting me it's worthwhile spending time with you anyways so that was worth a lot appreciate it thank you so first I want to give a special thank you both to those in general how specifically who actually called me to want to be part of this program and I felt honored that he actually reached out individually to ask us to be part of this program and it really resonated with me when this opportunity came up to take it to the next level to focus on a specific Soldier onon very much appreciated the opportunity the soldier as behind me his name was Natan Yakov sounds like his is natti alab and received the plaque and it was very striking and we put it up in the sh I didn't say a word about it to anyone before chabis it was put up on Friday and Friday night people asked me what's with the par I said you know just right now it's there to focus on the specific Soldier and people read it stopped by was looked it like something intriguing they read it and I did some research on the soldier myself mostly through online articles which I found mostly in Hebrew but figured out some of the most of what was being said I think if I translated it correctly and he was a special person without question and Truth is every person who kesem has something unique and special to him but to focus on a specific person and what he was all about was something which was very meaningful he was a father of five children and that itself like really P read that like dealing with a person who was had a whole family structure to him and the impact that his death had caused not just on him and his family was obviously quite significant actually found then online a recording of the last words that he shared with his with his soldiers with his with his unit wow and telling them I love you to his soldiers you know right before they went out to battle and I heard it and I heard the words and I was like it's almost like it brought tears to my eyes and thinking about that moment and that was his last really connection to the to his unit but thinking about the love he had obviously for his unit and certainly by extension you know to soldiers around them and I'm thinking about that Translating that love to his family and that loss that they had to suffer through and and went through was something which was very very very powerful very powerful and when I shared about a shabas morning spoke about the concept of the connection that we want to have both ter to and the people specifically and what I focused on was that when you take a number a large number it is very very hard to really connect and unfortunately the numbers are are are too big to Fathom and to wrap our heads around focusing on one person makes it that much easier and when there's a picture and when there's a story and there's a person that itself made a very great ability to connect and I think really people did it resonated with people and I think it made an impact amazing amazing thank you and you know you mentioned yikon and I correct me if I'm wrong your SCH typically has not done something for yikon is that correct correct that's correct it's not something which was part of what we did and this year I felt it was very appropriate to focus on it to talk about it to mention it and to actually make a real connection to not just the Army in general and those who were lost but to a specific person in that way and it was it was very powerful the the afterwards myself and gmid who's the r of the SCH across the street we work together with a lot who also did the program as well we did a presentation like we do every year in the girls high school when we both brought our pictures so let's both bring our pictures of our soldiers and we spoke about each one of us the person who we had commemorated and memorialized and then spoke about the concept of each sh taking on and that itself was a very powerful message while we focused together each SCH doing it in their own way by making a suff a point about it yeah and I think that's a important point because each show is going to have their own flavor of what it looks like some schs may have a much more formal y or Y mod and here in your soul you're not going to have the same formal structure that other other places may have but right the notion of remembering the notion of of giving Cavo the notion of giving a the for the soul of the the one who who who who died is something which is clearly very much part of the culture and part of the values of your sh and to your point it's not all done the same every every sh is doing it differ it's just to hear that yeah how and I'm curious how was it received being that your sh perhaps was not as accustomed to seeing a soldier maybe in the hallway of the sh how did people on the sh receive this only heard positive and for many people people came over to me after theing after I spoke and throughout chabas when they were talking about that the soldier very positive and people appreciated the fact they had an opportunity to connect and something they would to naturally done that means had we not made a point out of it it would have naturally have happened for most people but this way was a way of actually focusing on it then I only heard positive feedback right so you clearly value deeply the the service of these soldiers like could you articulate that for us just a little bit in terms of the value clearly you're putting up in your office putting up in your show you mentioned to me a beautiful story before which I'm going to ask you to to to tell everyone here about the tahil that you said uh recently how how do you conceptualize how do you see the soldiers in ER St and your relationship to down and if you could please repeat that story because it's such a moving yeah so let me share this story with Sher and then I use that as a segue to the to the question at large just last week we had a fellow his name was bam shimoni he lived here for a number of years and then from AR to and then moved back to him his wife he has two daughters two young daughters three-year-old and one and a halfy old and he came back here last week for a few days for a visit on business and I saw him and right away we got a you know was it was very exciting I hadn't seen him in in in couple years and I said how things been going and he said he just got back a few weeks ago from eight months of service he started telling me about firstly the fact that he was never actually even called up because he' been in America for a number of years and therefore he actually somehow fell out of the radar they said right after October 7th he volunteered himself he called up he called his commander and said I want to I want to serve and he came up he was there for eight months almost straight obviously a days off here and there he said he has two little kids two little daughters who who were always asking if and he spoke about the difficulties for his children for his wife obviously throughout the eight months spoke about the Nan that he had he was a commander he has 25 soldiers under his under his command and the Nan that his unit had the they had mysterious NE that they went through really living in in unspeakable conditions for most of those eight months it was incredible and then he spoke about that in his unit itself there were at least three others who volunteered who weren't called up two of them had had their sixth child already and therefore really essentially not required to serve one of them was past the age of of service and he said they got together and they really bonded in a way they had never bonded before and it was very moving he spoke to him I spoke to him for like a half hour during the day and then that day dur which was last week he came and we always say to hel him for the soldiers and for the mat between we said as regular and before he said as we always do I said can you come up I said he was like like was what I wanted said you don't have to speak I just want to talk about you I spoke exactly about this point about his service about the eight months the about the about his volunteerism all those aspects and I said this is the person that we've been ding for all these past nine months like let's connect to something which is real it's not just a esoteric concept there's someone here person who we all know who's been here and I said let's sing a together and we sangu it was a very very very powerful moment when we were singing a with the person my arms around him and we were singing in front of the sh was a very very powerful moment and that's really been the message I've been trying to share both to myself and and to the sh at large is that the connection the appreciation the love that we need to have for what all the soldiers are doing is is unparalleled in terms of how we we have to feel and something which is is needs to be articulated and reminded and focused on because it doesn't always happen naturally especially after so many months something which is very hard and I've always been a person who like is would so but I realize that air thank you was like know it's nothing and the truth is that when I was n second time after the Miss I went on my own with my son and we sponsored a barbecue that you know from the SCH we went down to a to a base to be there with them and it it was such a powerful experience my son who who was almost 13 then and first of all the experience for him and appreciation that he had yeah they also gave him a grand time they took him in their you know they put him on top of the jeep with the sub machine gun and they had had a great time with that but it was it was something very powerful and we videoed spoke to them in in in Hebrew and we we videoed it and I spoke about you know how much it it means to our and us that you're doing and I feel like that was the least we can do to have some level of expressing in a real way appreciation and again as the months goes on it becomes more and more difficult to just feel the level of connection and everything we can do is is powerful so last week when that when bamin came back that was powerful was powerful each step as we can do is is powerful and important yeah so I love that that framing in other words there just such a deep deep sense of a car a deep sense of of gratitude for the incredible sacrifice self-sacrifice that these soldiers and the recognition of the mysterious neish I think that's really what it is recognition of M neish the fact that people many of them don't have to be there right right of this unit even those who have to be there like they're all in they're all in and I think it's it's a lesson for all of us we should all be as all in as they are in everything we're doing in we should be inspired from from what they're doing and they should just have they should have success and theab should continue to have an Al Le on your shoulders it's clearly clearly you are doing a lot in your SCH to ensure that his Nish and that all the is remembered all the nishas are remembered and that you will continuously are being inspired and giving gratitude towards those soldiers who are still on the front line Thank you thank you for your time I really appreciate it s just bring Shalom to the entire region and to the entire world and thank you for all that you're doing and be for all you and all you doing as well thank you so much thank you have a wonderful day