An Entire World Lost, Again

Ohad Yaari, ztz"l

It was devastating to receive a call before Shabbos from my son, brokenly telling us that one of his friends stationed with him in Lebanon was killed.

Ohad Yaari was just 21 years old. He was a smiling, happy, kind young man. Once, when he finished a two-hour night shift on guard and was headed towards much-needed sleep, he saw that his replacement was suffering from low morale. So Ohad got some food and sat with his replacement for two hours, to raise his spirits.

Even more tragic was that Ohad was not killed by a Hezbollah drone, as has happened so tragically often in the last few weeks, but instead in an operational accident by another soldier. One also feels terrible for the soldier who did it, and it is important to bear in mind that working with guns in a war zone always involves risks and accidents. Ohad’s father is not even interested in an investigation; he understands that such things happen and is more interested in trying to boost the spirits of everyone in our sons’ group. (And the fact of such tragic accidents is also something worth pointing out to people who claim every Palestinian death as a deliberate killing by a nefarious IDF.)

We have seen so many IDF deaths over the last three years - over a thousand. A few may stand out in our memories, especially if you have a personal connection to them, but the vast majority just become a blur of names and photos. Yet each one is the most terrible tragedy. Chazal say that the loss of a single life is like the loss of an entire world. These young men had their entire futures ahead of them - hopes, dreams, careers, good deeds, wives, children, grandchildren.

Of course, tragic deaths happen all the time, outside of IDF service too. Car accidents, cancer, suicides - my young cousin even died from the flu. And one can say that deaths as part of IDF service, even in operational accidents, are at least much more meaningful. When the Sages stated that the loss of a single life is the loss of an entire world, they also stated that one who saves a single life has saved an entire world. Each death, while the loss of an entire world, is also part of an institution that protects and saves millions of entire worlds. Ohad Yaari was a hero.

But on the other hand, the scale of such deaths, especially over the last three years, is appalling. As is the even larger scale of other forms of suffering relating to army service. The injuries, the PTSD, the broken marriages and collapsed families, the devastated careers.

May we see better times.