*Parshat Vayechi*
By our very own
Hayim Ani

I've been to a few funerals in the past number of years but none of them compare to the experience I had this past Tuesday. As many of you may have heard, a few of the casualties that the Israeli army has suffered in Gaza were due to friendly fire. I decided to go to the funeral of one of these soldiers with a group from the yeshiva. Yehonatan Netanel, 27 years old, captain of the paratroopers, left behind a wife and a three month old baby.

At every funeral I've been to, there are people in the crowd (usually me) who feel distanced from the pain, unable to relate or connect to the loss. We stand like awkward pillars, unable to cry and a little ashamed of doing nothing. Tuesday night was different. Hundreds of people came, religious, non religious, soldiers, tourists, those that knew Yehonatan and those who had never heard of him. However, looking around the crowd, I discovered that almost everyone was crying. I found myself crying as well.

When an Israeli soldier receives his beret after basic training he is inducted into the army. He holds a gun in one hand and a Tanach in the other and swears to protect the Jewish people and the land of Israel.

Parshat Vayechi contains two aspects of Jewish life which are familiar to us. The first we hear of twice, once from Ya'akov (47:30) and once from Yosef (50:25). Both request to have their final burial spot in Eretz Yisroel.

*The second aspect of Jewish life is exhibited when Yosef brings his two sons before Ya'akov to be blessed. Through the commentary of Rashi we learn that when Ephraim and Menashe came in front of the patriarch, the shechina left him and he asked Yosef "from where did these two, who are unfit for blessing, come from?" Ya'akov was afraid that Yosef had married an idolatress woman. Yosef showed his father his ketubah which proved that his wife had adopted his religion. Seeing that his son had married well, Ya'akov blessed the boys.

These two values, being buried in Eretz Yisroel*(connection to G-d) and marrying a Jew (connection to Klal Yisroel), are integral parts of Judaism. Ruth, the most famous convert said to Naomi :"Your people are my people and your G-d is my G-d." For a Jew there is a constant duality within: the culture and the practice; the history and the future; the fate and the destiny; the biology and the religiosity, and the physical and the spiritual. Both are incredibly important. We must have the identity and the adherence. These two ideals connect us with all other Jews and separate us from everyone else. As the Rav writes in *Kol Dodi Dofek*: "The individual is tied to his people both with the chains of fate and with the bonds of destiny."

At Yehonatan's funeral everyone felt a loss. He was a soldier of our nation and he died defending our people. Through feeling the achdut and connection at that ceremony, I was able to understand the pain we should feel when any Jew gets hurt or G-d forbid, dies. We are more than just people who follow an ancient code of laws, we are all part of something far bigger than ourselves. We are a nation; a single body that hurts when any part of it is injured. We define ourselves with our practices and beliefs but we unite ourselves with who we are. That is something worth protecting; something worth fighting for.

It's a hard time for the Jewish people now with the war continuing to rage in Gaza and the anti-Israel remarks being spread across the media. Now is the time we need to come together and show ourselves what kind of connection wecan have with our fellow Jews and the impact our wonderful nation can have. Through strength in unity and effect in action, we can beat the odds.

From Eretz Yisrael, I wish you all a Shabbat Shalom.