A Father’s Story of Faith and Compassion After the Meron Tragedy

Following the tragedy in Meron, Rimon Tubin shared a post about the divine providence that protected his son Yuval, who is on the autism spectrum:

“On Thursday, I was supposed to accompany Yuval to Meron. Naturally, I was full of concern — after all, even under normal circumstances, a massive pilgrimage isn’t a place for a child with autism. At the last moment, Yuval decided to change plans and instead spend the entire night learning at the home of Rabbi Ginzburg, a central figure in Chabad. I drove him to Kfar Chabad and left once I saw he was in good hands.

Suddenly, in the middle of the night, the news started pouring in. I called Yuval, just to make sure he was alright. When he answered and said, ‘Yes, Dad, I’m fine,’ I couldn’t help but thank the One who watches over us from above: Thank You for not putting me to the test of worrying about my son in the midst of a mass disaster. Somehow, his heart guided him in the right direction.

For some time now, Yuval has been drawing closer to religion, and through him, we’ve been discovering the religious world. I was born to secular parents and grew up in a kibbutz as an atheist, without much affection for religious people. Thanks to Yuval, I’ve come to see that things are not as black and white as I once thought.

I’ve believed for ten years already, and one sentence I once heard continues to guide me: ‘This world is the playground of the soul.’ Sometimes, in difficult moments, I imagine that life is just a simulation designed to test me. It helps me detach for a moment from the raw emotions that keep me from thinking clearly. You can doubt almost everything, but not the soul — if it chose to be here, there must be a reason. Yuval didn’t just stumble into religion by accident.

It’s not only the ideas — it’s mainly the people. For some reason, in the religious community Yuval finds an incredible amount of acceptance and empathy for his condition, without judgment. People look at him eye to eye and even see him as a lofty soul (I’m sure he is, but who am I to say?). They give him a loving space and manage to be patient with him. These people have made the last two years so much easier, giving us the sense that Yuval has found something meaningful, and a circle of friends who truly listen.

Through this lens, it’s become much harder for me to accept the religious-secular divide in our society. Yuval tells me that Judaism has a deep connection to time — linking current events, the weekly Torah portion, the seasons, and the holidays. That’s why I was surprised to hear that on Lag BaOmer, at the rabbi’s house, they learned about the rebellion of Korach and his followers — a dispute over leadership. There too, many families met death because of bad advice and ego.

In times like these, I can only hope that we learn to cultivate compassion, to set ego and disputes aside, and to engage only in disagreements that elevate us as a society. May we learn to truly embrace the other — not just as a slogan or when it’s convenient, but even when it’s complicated, when the other is completely different, demands special attention, and practices customs we don’t understand. Because that is where the real challenge lies.”