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Harvey Tannenbaum a resident of Efrat, is the owner of , a full service concierge business for tourists and travelers in Israel. Tannenbaum immigrated to Israel from Los Angeles in 1994. He can be reached at
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By Harvey Tannenbaum
April 1, 2001
The blue blanket wrapped the baby from the heat outside the Maarat Hamachpela in Hebron. The blue blanket had a Star of David, blue and white in its corner near the head of Shalhevet Techiya Pass H"YD as the sole pallbearer carried her to the grave of the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron today. As thousands gathered outside the Maarat Hamachpela where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rivka, and Leah, the original Jews are buried, Shalhevet Techiya (translation: Flame That Will Live) was clutched in the arms by her mother, Oriyah. Yitzchak, the father, was in his wheelchair, still recuperating from the bullet wounds in his legs.
When Shalhevet was passed to her father, Yitzchak rose on his crutches to receive his baby for the last time. Unlike the scene at the hospital ten months ago when Oriyah, the mother, passed the newborn baby girl to the proud father in joint celebration of their first child, the blue blanket that wrapped Shalhevet at her birth was warm with life and brightness as the parents stared down at their new offspring. The smiles that began to develop over the months that connected Shalhevet to her parents, the goo-goos, and gaga-gagas, were extinguished last week by the Arab animal killer.
Today the cold and limp body in the blue blanket of birth was walked to the freshly prepared "crib of earth."
As the funeral procession joined in the customary shoveling of dirt of the earth being moved around during this shmitta (sabbatical) year of rest for this land of Israel, once again the land was being disturbed to bury another Jew.
Instead of singing "Happy Birthday" in two months, this father and mother now have Kaddish [prayer said daily during the periods of mourning] to say daily. As they try to think about the high chair that won't be used next Saturday night at the Passover Seder by Shalhevet, after their completion of Shiva [week of mourning] this coming Friday, the questions of Ma Nishtana [ritual questions asking why Passover night is different from all other nights] that we all shall recite will be asked by Yitzchak and Oriyah Pass as to what will be different next week from all other nights.
One hour after the funeral as the Jews returned to the various cities from which they came throughout Israel to attend this day of tears, the PLO began shooting again from the hills above, from the same area that Shalhevet was murdered in to Avraham Avinu's Jewish quarter of Hebron. The Jews who were sitting at the Shiva house of the Pass family in their first few hours of sitting Shiva were on the floor for cover to try and say their condolences of "Hamakom Yinachem, and ShaLo Tedu M'tzar" to the parents with machine gun fire in the air above Shalhevet's crib of earth of her grave.
The tanks responded, the IDF did its thing, but the conquering and recapture with helicopters, parachutists, and whatever it takes is still being deferred.
As G-d decided not to "pass over" the first-born girl of this Pass family, we seek His reappearance to the nation of Israel to give us some light back in memory of the Shalhevet flame.
Views expressed by the author do not
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