Tribute to "Our Boys"

{Dedicated with all my love and continual support to the Frenkel, Sha'ar and Yifrach families. You are in my heart and on my mind and in my prayers.}

We often hear it said,

"What a waste..." 

when young men die in their prime. 

"What a waste."

But what does that mean, anyway? Are we noting a waste in their short life, that maybe they shouldn't have lived at all? Heaven forbid. 

Or do we mean to exclaim that their death was entirely a waste, that they died in vain.

I'm learning that with Elohim, neither is true. 

Just as this common saying goes along with sudden or tragic deaths, so do the words "Why?" and "What for?" We ask each other, and we ask G-d, why? Why, when they were so young, did they have to give up their whole life? Why, when they were innocent, were they condemned? 

Or we may ask G-d, What is it all for? Did their dying day have any or as much purpose as their living day? And what are we supposed to learn from their death that we may have otherwise missed had they remained with us? 

While reading an article, yesterday, a simple point was revealed to me that I never before noticed. Looking at all the major religions in the world, both historical and modern, we see a pattern of ethnic societies that have a huge dependence on the afterlife. Judaism, however, stands as one exception. While they may believe in a future place in heaven- or perhaps the bosom of Abraham- following death, Jewish culture does not exhibit a great deal of imagination on the subject. The Torah itself seems to say little in regards to a world after the grave. Yet even so, the Jewish people put stock into their hope for a life closer to G-d, both during their lifetimes and beyond. So why do we know so little of heaven through their mindset? Perhaps it is because their Elohim is the G-d {the only God} of LIFE. 

He delights in life and holding sacred the pursuit of life, in cleanliness and joy. NOT in how many deeds you do in order to earn yourself a holy spot in heaven, or 70-some virgins in a celestial bed. And if the Torah expounded so much more on the details of an afterlife, we may start to live for death, instead of live for life. When someone dies, we may stop asking "Why?" and "What for?", and the meaning of death would hold no more weight because we would stop living life for God, and start seeking our own lot in a utopia after this life. There would be no more meaning in TODAY. 

So when someone dies, or in some cases, more than one person, we stop and look at, not only their life, but what Elohim meant for us to see in their death. Because if He delights so much in life, than He would take no one's breath without a purpose. 

Today we ask the purpose of the three murders of teenage boys whose lives were ended because of the hatred for their people. In the last few weeks of hurting and hoping and praying for their safe return, the families of Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrach, and Gilad Sha'ar have hoped beyond hope that it would not come to such a bitter end. And even now, after the boys are laid to rest, we continue to hope that their lives- and deaths- will not be in vain. That no one will EVER say "What a waste" in regards to their heroic ends. We continue to hope, and we continue to STAND on the the belief that this will be for a purpose and in the end, for LIFE. 

#BringBackOurBoys will never come true, because in this lifetime, Our Boys are never coming home. But in their memory, may HOPE continue to live and breathe, and may LIFE continue to sprout forth in the Land of Israel as a means of boldly defying the face of fear and death. 

Always for Jerusalem, and the beloved people of the Land...

~mrs. jeb~