Mrs. Pilai, Mother of Friday’s Terror Victims: Thank You God for my Years with Them. I’ve Sent a Sacrifice back to God
Mrs. Pilai, Mother of Friday’s Terror Victims: Thank You God for my Years with Them. I’ve Sent a Sacrifice back to God
On Friday afternoon I was in my kitchen getting ready for Shabbat when I suddenly heard sirens. Lots of them. I’ve lived in Israel for almost 3 decades, long enough that that kind of sirens fills my heart with dread.
A Palestinian terrorist from East Jerusalem, I found out, had driven into a crowd of people at the Ramot Junction. A 5-year-old boy, Yaakov Yisrael Pilai, and newly-married 20-year-old Alter Shlomo Lederman were killed immediately. Yaakov Yisrael’s 8-year-old brother, Asher, died over Shabbat. And their father, Avraham, son of Rabbi Shmuel Pilai of Bnei Brak (the family were on their way to Bnei Brak for a family occasion) is still hospitalized in moderate condition.
Mrs. Pilai, who witnessed the attack, was in my heart all of Shabbat.
The following interview with the Zaka volunteers who were with Mrs. Pilai when she found out that every mother’s worst fear had come to pass was posted on Kikar Shabbat.
“A day after the murderous attack in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem, Benzi Lazarovich, a ZAKA volunteer who was present at the scene of the attack, recounts the unfathomable moments of conversation with a mother who lost her two sons, Asher and Yaakov Israel, whom she saw murdered with her own eyes, and he, as a non-authorized volunteer had to keep the news to himself.
“Mrs. Pilai was surrounded by neighbors who came to be with her at those difficult moments. We approached her and asked her: ‘Are you the mother?’ She answered ‘Yes.’ Then we gently told her that in a few minutes the police commander and we would need to speak with her. She looked me in the eyes and asked: “My son is alive? What condition is he in?” I looked at my friend, Rabbi Israel Wertheimer, and he looked back at me as a sign of what to answer.
“I answered her: ‘We need to pray, we will know soon.’ In our hearts we knew her son was no longer alive. Inside, my heart I was broken – I held myself back from bursting into tears next to the mother. But as soon as I turned away, tears flowed from my eyes.
After the body was identified and the police told the mother the difficult news, she responded: “What is there to say? Thank You very much to God that I received my child for 5 years. I have now sent a sacrifice back to God.”
“ZAKA commander Benzi Oering and volunteer Moti Fried, who were in Shamgar when they received the news, burst into tears. All Shabbat, I kept thinking about how the mother looked at me and asked: ‘Is my son alive?'”
May Hashem send Mrs. Pilai and her family comfort following this devastating tragedy. And may they be the last victims of terror. HY”D
To say “devastating” and “heartbreaking” doesn’t even begin to express it. How can I find out shiva information?
The Pilai Shiva is on Rehov Mintz 41 Ramot Daled
10 AM-2 PM and 5 PM-10 PM
Shachrit 8 AM Mincha 5 PM, Maariv at the zman