Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on IDF Fallen Soldiers

Today is Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers of Israel, and we are publishing these words (with additional insights) that were spoken by our holy teacher Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of blessed memory, at a Memorial Day gathering nearly forty years ago. These words remain relevant today as well.

The Talmud states (Bava Batra 10b), regarding the martyrs of Lod, no creature can stand in their presence. The explanation of "martyrs of Lod" refers to the brothers Pappus and Lulianus. This incident occurred when the king's daughter was found murdered, and the gentiles suspected that someone from Israel had killed her. They decreed annihilation upon all the people, but Pappus and Lulianus stood up and redeemed Israel with their lives, saying, "We killed her." The king then executed only them, and all of Israel was saved. Concerning them, our sages said that no creature can stand in their presence, due to the greatness of their reward in the World to Come.

There is no doubt that these words apply equally to the fallen IDF soldiers buried in the Land of Israel, who risked their lives in Israel's battles for our redemption and salvation. They were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions. May their souls be bound in the bond of life.

Our nation is accustomed to suffering and filled with tears, over the rivers of our brothers' blood that has been spilled like water. "I have had no peace, no quiet, no rest; and trouble has come" (Job 3:26). Since the destruction of our Holy Temple and our glory, and the exile of Israel from its land, Jewish blood has been spilled like water. They said, "Come, let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel's name will be remembered no more" (Psalms 83:5). A heavenly voice weeps bitterly three times a day, saying, "Woe to Me that I destroyed My house, burned My sanctuary, and exiled My children among the nations." We have always been the target of gentile hatred—eternal hatred for the eternal people. In every generation, they rise up to destroy us. Hundreds of communities were brutally murdered during the Crusades and the Inquisition, and the most recent tragedy was the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed, including great Torah scholars and righteous pillars of the world. Even now, with the attacks against us by our Palestinian Arab neighbors, who frequently harm our soldiers. Our sages have already said in Tractate Rosh Hashanah (23a), "Woe to the nations of the world who have no remedy."

Our sages taught (Yalkut Shimoni, Parashat Matot) that for all those who were murdered by the wicked nations, Hashem dips their blood onto the garment He wears until it becomes saturated with blood. When the day of judgment arrives, the jealous and vengeful God wraps Himself in that garment and sees all the bodies of those murdered by the wicked. "Righteousness will be the belt around His waist" (Isaiah 11:5), to take vengeance upon the nations and rebuke the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, as it is said, "He will judge among the nations, filling them with corpses" (Psalms 110:6).

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Photo: Yoav Ari Dudkevitch / Flash 90)

Memorial Day should serve not only as a day of mourning for our fallen, whose loss is as difficult as the destruction of the Temple, but also as a day of soul-searching. We must strive to return to our ancestors' traditions, to return to Torah and good deeds, and to educate our children in Torah, as the verse states, "Return to Me, and I will return to you" (Malachi 3:7). Many of those who perished for the sanctification of Hashem's name were killed only so that our nation could continue to exist with its Torah, and many were killed literally for the sanctification of Hashem's name, refusing to convert. Therefore, in their deaths, they commanded us to live—to live a life of Torah, as Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon said, "Our nation is only a nation through its Torah."

May the merit of the IDF fallen, the defenders of our Holy Land, together with all the holy martyrs of Israel, stand forever as a shield of protection for their families. May they stand in prayer before the Throne of Glory on behalf of all Israel, that we should know no more sorrow, as it is said, "Your sun shall set no more, your moon no more withdraw; for Hashem shall be your light forever, and your days of mourning shall be ended" (Isaiah 60:20). May the verse be fulfilled for us: "I will establish a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. Evil men shall not afflict them anymore, as at the beginning" (II Samuel 7:10). "You shall call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise" (Isaiah 60:18). May our eyes witness the building of our Temple, a tent that shall not be taken down, whose pegs shall never be pulled up, and whose cords shall never be broken. As it has been said, "For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redemption has come" (Isaiah 63:4). "Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When Hashem brings back the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad" (Psalms 14:7). He will remove the spirit of impurity from the land, and a redeemer will come to Zion speedily in our days. Amen.