Chizuk for Today from the Father of Capt. Yoni Natanel z”l
In response to the tragic events of this past Shabbat, we can get chizuk from the words of Rabbi Amos Natanel, father of Capt. Yonatan z”l, to the crew of the tank that mistakenly killed his son during Operation Cast Lead in 2009:
“Rest assured, you did not hurt Yoni, Yoni died al Kiddush Hashem (sanctifying God’s name) at exactly the time when Heaven intended it for him. You were only the pure angels to carry this out. It is good, we believe, that your pure hands injured him and not the hands of an impure enemy.”
While we are naturally saddened when an Israeli is accidentally killed by friendly fire, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner explains, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that any Jew killed during combat with an enemy, even if not actually killed by the enemy (such as in the case of a soldier killed in an accident or a hostage killed by friendly fire) that Jew still died as a martyr sanctifying Hashem’s name, and he or she will dwell in the highest level of Heaven, that nobody, even the greatest Tsaddikim, can ever reach, right underneath Hashem’s Throne of Glory.
This is GREAT chizuk! Wow, what a high level people can reach on this earth, Rabbi Natanel both explains and demonstrates!