Today it is thirteen years and a week since our family was blessed with our seventh grandchild. Our joy was limitless, and we looked forward eagerly to the baby’s brit. He did not come home from the hospital straight to Itamar, the village where his family lives. Rather, he and his mother went to his maternal grandparents. His father, siblings, my husband, and I joined them for the baby’s first Shabbat.

At the same time we were celebrating his birth, tragedy struck Itamar. Arab terrorists armed with knives and hate infiltrated the village. They entered the Fogel’s home and brutally murdered Rav Ehud, the father, Rut, his wife, and three of their six children. Yoav was eleven years old, Elad was four, and baby Naomi was only three months old.

Our mourning was limitless as we prepared for the funerals. Four days later our grandson was ushered into the covenant of Avraham and was given a name that had the initials of Rav Ehud, Rut, Yoav, and Elad.

My daughter-in-law has kept a connection going with Tali Ben Ishi, Rut’s mother, ever since. It was only natural that as our grandson’s Bar Mitzvah drew close the two women would speak. Tali requested that my daughter-in-law share some of her words with the ladies of Itamar. And so, after our grandson read from the Torah and the last Kaddish recited, my daughter-in-law gathered the women together. She read the letter Rut’s mother had prepared. I have taken the liberty of translating and sharing it with you.

To the loved and dear women of Itamar, this week, full of majesty before Purim, is the week our children, Rav Ehud, Rut, and their children, Yoav, Elad, and Hadas, hy’d, left this world in a sacred storm and went up to the holy palace of the people of Israel.

It is my privilege to bless you with much light and joy. Rut loved the village of Itamar so much! She would always tell us about your good character traits, especially the simplicity that was dear to her.

I miss Ruti so much and I’m sure you do too. As her mother, I want to hug you and wish for you to always see good and joy in your homes in Itamar and all of Israel.  May you be blessed with blessings from heaven and earth and merit soon to go up, all of us, as one person, to the house of HaShem and cry out in a loud voice “HaShem is G-d, HaShem is G-d”.  

Thirteen years ago, the country was horrified by the cold-blooded murder of the Fogels. How could anyone, even the most depraved terrorist, take a knife in his hand and knowingly stab a three-month-old baby to death. Now, 164 days into the current war, we have learned that was not an anomaly. Children, elderly, teenagers, men, and women were not killed by collateral damage on October 7^th. Just like the Fogels, they were murdered in cold blood. That is why we must fight this war until the end. May we all be inspired by Tali Ben Ishi’s strength and faith.