16 Years of Kindness

Here is how one Israeli reacted to the massacre of the Fogel family in Itamar, Israel. This is an excerpt from a blog. The full note is below:

Every day, Rami Levi comes by the shiva house to the Fogel family and fills the cupboards and refrigerator himself with food for the family and guests. Today, one of the relatives thanked him for this incredible kindness and his response brought me to tears,"You will get used to my face," he told this family in mourning, "I have committed myself that every week I will deliver food and stock your home until the youngest orphan turns 18 years old."

The oldest orphan in the Fogel family, you have probably heard, is Tamar, the 12-year-old girl who found her parents, two brothers and sister murdered, and found two remaining brothers safe. The youngest of the orphans is only 2 years old.

Shiva is the period in which Jews sit and mourn for their immediate loved ones. It is a 7 day period, broken only by the Sabbath, a day on which we do not mourn. Throughout the period, friends and family come to comfort, to speak of the loved ones lost, to remember, to ease the immediate pain, if at all possible.

After the Shiva, the mourning continues, in degrees. First there is the Shloshim - the 30 days. The restrictions of the Shiva period are intense. You sit on low chairs, a sign of mourning. You wear a shirt torn in grief, and for the most part, you do not leave your house. The Shloshim representing an easing of many of the earlier restrictions, but still you grieve. After the Shloshim, for the first year, there are still rules and laws. Less than the Shloshim, but still not normal.

With each easing of the restrictions, in some way, the grief is eased as well and you learn you can live, laugh, survive. For now, the Fogel family is sitting Shiva, the hardest, most intense part of the mourning. People come to visit and usually, food is put out somewhere. Some people spend hours sitting and talking - and many try to encourage the family to eat something.

Quietly, over the last few days, a man has been coming to the house bringing food and stocking the kitchen. His name is Rami Levy and he owns a chain of supermarkets. I've heard amazing stories about him in the past but this one beats all I have ever heard.

The youngest orphan of this tragedy is a young 2 year old boy who woke in the night and ran to his parents. Thankfully, by then, the terrorists had left, leaving a scene of unimaginable horror behind. The little boy ran to his parents and began to shake them, trying to wake them. His sister and a neighbor found him there, crying.

What Rami Levy has done is commit to 16 years of kindness. If this was a week in which the Palestinians should be ashamed, and it was, than this is a week in which we Jews have the right to be so proud.

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From the same blog, written the morning before the attack.

March 11, 2011
It's Called Terrorism, Folks
It angered me when President Obama refused to use the "T" word for the Fort Hood attack. When someone takes a gun, screams, "Allah Akbar" and opens fire, the action is clearly a terrorist one. Obama had problems with the more recent attack against American forces in Germany as well. So let me explain.
Last week, terrorists threw rocks at a bus from Maale Adumim that was about to enter a tunnel in Jerusalem. The tunnel was built a few years ago as a bypass to the old bypass road. The first bypass road was built so that thousands of people didn't have to drive through Abu Dis and Azarya for the 5 minute drive into Jerusalem from Maale Adumim. Those 5 minutes through two Arab neighborhoods threatened their safety and their lives as Arabs were throwing rocks and firebombs and more at passing cars.
During the second intifada, the Arabs attacked the bypass road, shooting, throwing things, etc. at the passing cars. More than once, they threw couches, chairs, even a washing machine - "appliance terrorism" a friend joked, but terrorism, nonetheless.
So the second bypass road was built, tunneling under Mt. Scopus into Jerusalem and moving the path of now tens of thousands of Israelis to a safer more distant area. And so, sometimes, despite heightened security, some cameras, and a checkpoint, the Arabs attack that road. Not often, as the land doesn't easily lend itself to attack and run, but still it happens.
Last week, they attacked a bus - one woman was injured and the bus was damaged. The Arabs had failed, though - because their goal was likely to hit the driver's window, shattering it from above and causing the bus to crash. The greater the suffering, the more the victory - for a terrorist.
Last night, Arabs opened fire on a bus in Maale Ephraim, north of Jerusalem. Damage to the bus, no injuries. Again, a failure for the terrorist. Again, terrorism. It's called terrorism, folks - when someone opens fire on innocents. It's terrorism when they use religion or politics as the justification for their attack, glorifying in the suffering of innocents. Terrorism, Mr. Obama.
Of all Obama's failures, and there are many, I believe his greatest failure will go down in history as his refusal to understand the fundamental threat that we in the west face. For whatever reason he refuses to see it, and I won't get into his religion, his birth certificate or parents, whatever the reason, his refusal to call terrorism by name is an insult to Americans, the military, all Israelis, and anyone who believes in the rights of the innocent.
When a rocket is fired at a city, that is terrorism. It terrorizes hundreds of thousands of people, parents and children, innocents. No political or military action in the world justifies such terrorism. That is the fundamental truth that Obama seeks to minimize by failing to use the accurate word.
It IS terrorism, folks. Yesterday and the day before, last week, last month, last year. In Fort Hood, in Tel Aviv, in Germany, in Kfar Sava, on September 11, in Bali, Jerusalem, Madrid, Netanya.
Terrorism.

Thank you for posting this. Jews living in Judea & Samaria take care of each other and I am glad I know many of them. HaShem is there for them:

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר מָלַךְ בְּטֶרֶם כָּל יְצִיר נִבְרָא לְעֵת נַעֲשָׂה בְחֶפְצוֹ כֹּל אֲזַי מֶלֶךְ שְׁמוֹ נִקְרָא אֲזַי מֶלֶךְ שְׁמוֹ נִקְרָא לְבַדּוֹ יִמְלוֹךְ נוֹרָא וְהוּא הָיָה וְהוּא הֹוֶה וְהוּא יִהְיֶה בְּתִפְאָרָה וְהוּא אֶחָד וְאֵין שֵׁנִי לְהַמְשִׁילֹ לוֹ לְהַחְבִּירָה בְּלִי רֵאשִׁית בְּלִי תַכְלִית בְּלִי רֵאשִׁית בְּלִי תַכְלִית וְהוּא אֵלִי וְחַי גּוֹאֲלִי וְצוּר חֶבְלִי בְּיוֹם צָרָה וְהוּא נִסִּי וּמָנוֹס ִלִי מְנָת כּוֹסִי בְּיוֹם אֶקְרָא בְּיָדוֹ אַפְקִיד רוּחִי בְּעֵת אִישָׁן וְאָעִירָה וְעִם רוּחִי גְוִיָּתִי אֲדֹנָי לִי וְלֹא אִירָא

B'H

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