When Tragedy Strikes Day After Day, We Are Left to Weep and Find Comfort

"Tzviki, we need to provide an answer to all the people here and to the community," Rabbi Chaim Valder eulogized his eldest son Tzviki, who passed, "How did it happen that Hashem took someone like you at just 28 and a half years? We owe an explanation to the tens of thousands who constantly prayed for Raphael Meir Tzvi, and we need an answer for those prayers." Last Thursday, the son of the renowned educator and author Rabbi Valder passed away after battling a severe illness at just 28 years old, mere hours after his father asked the public to pray for his recovery. At the funeral, Rabbi Valder revealed that his son had been ill since age seven with a condition that, while typically not fatal, was nearly unbearable. Rabbi Valder continued, as the crowd wept: "You had every reason to indulge yourself, to avoid doing anything. Tzviki, my firstborn, even as children followed in your footsteps, you never made excuses, studying diligently in school and yeshiva. You were a symbol—a true leader, a young man who never uttered a false word."

An unimaginable situation, against the natural order, defying a parent's instincts. A father eulogizing his son, a heartbreaking moment. It's hard to comprehend the pain and disappointment that life can be cut so short. We can ponder the journey of the Valder family, the widow left behind, the children now fatherless. Pain that bursts the heart and underscores life's fleeting nature, and perhaps most of all, its ticking clock.

On Motzei Shabbat, Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib Landau, aged 83, passed away. He was the rabbi of the Torah city of Bnei Brak. Rabbi Landau's life was dedicated to the study of what is permissible and forbidden in the world of food—a field that he turned into his life's work. Rabbi Landau was primarily known as a prominent figure in kosher food supervision, leading one of the world's most stringent and respected programs. Even outside the religious sector, his name was associated with the legend that he was one of the few who had learned the secret Coca-Cola formula to certify it as kosher, becoming a mark of premium kosher certification. Rabbi Landau was a beacon of kashrut (dietary laws). His passing left even those who didn't grow up in Bnei Brak or among the Chassidim in deep sorrow, mourning the loss of a rabbi whose life embodied halacha. May we gain even a fraction of his courage and integrity.

On Monday, Shlomi Mark was laid to rest. His father Michael was murdered in a terrorist attack three years ago. Shlomi succumbed to injuries from a car accident, dying at 29. His father, Rabbi Michael Mark, was the head of the hesder yeshiva in Atzmona and Yeshiva Torah Shraga in Jerusalem, fatally shot while driving with his family on Route 60 in July 2016. His wife, Shlomi's mother, sustained severe injuries while two other children sustained moderate and light injuries. Shlomi, devoted to caring for his siblings and mother, left behind three orphaned children and a widow, Yiska, also a child of loss whose father was killed in a terror attack.

Hearing about such devastating tragedies—younger than 30, the deaths turn into a concrete possibility, their presence echoing and startling because of the illusion that life lasts forever. Waking up in the morning becomes a habit, an ingrained reflex, even as each day is an unearned gift. Tzviki and Shlomi endured so much in their short lives, becoming a beacon of light for those around them. Indeed, the question rests: What does one do with the allotted time they have? Did they connect with their Creator? Are their lives filled with real content and meaning through Torah and mitzvot? When life's journey is on a path that allows fulfillment of purpose—there is a source of comfort and hope.