“Little Benaya”: Nephew Born 2 Weeks After Soldier’s Death Carries his Name
IDF Commander Benaya Sarel was killed this past August during the war with Gaza. Exactly 2 weeks after his death, his sister, Chaya Gelman, gave birth to a baby boy. Chaya remembers:
“Giving birth two weeks after my brother was killed was a very difficult emotional experience.
“I felt all the pain which had accompanied me since his death. I had been shaken up very badly, and I cried a lot.
“But after I gave birth, I laughed. Since we didn’t know what gender the baby would be, and when the baby came out and we saw that the baby was a boy, we felt a kind of comfort, a balm for the soul.
“Just two weeks after his death, and a new baby boy had came to the family.
“At that moment, I stopped crying. We praised Hashem because we could see that He had taken life, but gave us new life, and that is a kind of consolation.”
Baby Benaya with mother Chaya
Baby Benaya with mother, Chaya, and grandparents
Fallen soldier Benaya Sarel HY”D
This quotation and the photos originally appeared in Yediot Yerushalayim.
Photos are of: Chaya with baby Benaya (by Avi Rokeach), Chaya with baby and her parents (by Avi Rokeach), and Benaya Sarel HY”D (family photo)
