Tzom Gedalia is a minor fast day commemorating the assassination of a Jewish governor named Gedalia by another Jew in probably around the year 582 BCE. Zion a very interesting egalitarian Israeli community trying to rethink tefila, learning and social justice. For a number of years, Zion has been teaming up with Tag Meir (https://www.tag-meir.org.il/en/) which is an organization fighting racism and responding to acts of violence and hatred with acts of love – no matter who the target is. Zion has been doing a special tour with Tag Meir to visit some of the families affected by violence and hate in the past year. As part of the tour, we drove an hour north of jerusalem into the heart of Samaria/West Bank/Area C (depending on your choice of language) to meet Yakub on the side of a highway. Yakub is a father of 8 and a Palestinian who has been working as a contractor for many years in a haredi Jewish settlement. A year ago, he was driving home with his wife and 8 year old daughter on a friday night when his car was pelted with boulders from the nearby hilltop thrown by yeshiva students from a nearby yeshiva (one of the hilltop settlements) who were aiming to target palestinian cars. (Palestinian cars have different color license plates and are easily identifiable). Yakub’s wife died immediately with a boulder shattering the window and hitting her in the head. We met Yakob at the exact location where his wife died a year ago. In this year, he has become good friends with the head of Tag Meir who reached out to him with comfort and visits and many condolence visits by other Israelis. Yakob med us with incredible love and welcoming. And on behalf of Zion, their rabbi, Rabbi Tamar Elad Appelbaum brought tears and apologies and spoke about it being our job to make sure fellow Jews see the full humanity of Yakov and all Palestinians and her deepest sorrow and apologies that his wife had been killed in the name of Judaism. And together, on the side of the highway where Ayla had been killed, we prayed together for peace.
Crazy that these acts of violence were done in the name of Judaism, by yeshiva students, on shabbat (when carrying a stone outside the eruv, and there was no eruv, would be breaking shabbat).
We heard an incredible story later about Yakub by the head of tag meir. He shared that Yakub called him after president Rivlin’s wife died and said he wanted to make a shiva visit to president Rivlin from one widower to another. And so, the head of Tag Meir, worked to get the security clearances and set up for Yakub to make a shiva visit. And the president, who had been told ahead of time about Yakub, interrupted his being greeted by hundreds of Israelis during shiva, to spend time alone with Yakub – one widower to another, seeing each other as fellow brothers.