FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)A move to a new house in a new city involves so much tachlis – logistics of buses, boxes, bureaucracy, and babysitters. I was on the prowl for the latter as I coasted through our neighborhood of Mitzpe Nevo in Ma’aleh Adumim, about five miles east of Jerusalem. Stopping the car next to a group of girls chatting on the corner, I rolled down the window and asked if any of them were available. Immediately Ruth volunteered, and she showed up at our door on Tuesday evening, August 31, at 6:15 p.m.
We came home two hours later from parent-orientation at the school to a house full of laughing kids, a living room of life, just as I like it. I ask Ruth what grade she is in. Her second year as a bat sherut, she answers proudly – doing extended national service, offering what appears to be a steady and patient nature to her young charges at the kindergartens and schools in the neighborhood.
Where are you from, Ruth? Bet Hagai, she tells me; that’s just south of Hebron, she adds automatically – not many people have heard of her yishuv. She agrees to babysit if we call on her again, and she leaves at 8:15 PM.
9:45 PM: My nightly ritual of checking the news is delayed somewhat, as I agonize over the wording of a letter of comfort for a bereaved mother who has lost her teenage son, a beloved student of mine. I’m drained and exhausted. The news reports a pigua, a terrorist attack; 4 shot dead, all from Bet Hagai, at 7:30 PM.
I go upstairs to tell Ira, and I say, somewhat irrationally, that we should call Ruth. I don’t know anyone else from Bet Hagai, and she was in our house at the time of the attack, but I still think we should call her.
Ruth? I say. It’s Tamar, from tonight. Ruth? (She’s in a car; I can tell from the background noise). I heard about a pigua, and that it was Bet Hagai, and I didn’t know if you knew. I (faltering)…can we do anything? Do you know who was…
Horim Sheli, she says, her voice very small, far away. My parents.
Oh my G-d, says Ira when he sees my face.
I pace, and then just cave in to sitting in shock. We clearly understand that G-d has a purpose for us here. We decide then that one of us would attend the funeral the following day and perhaps gain some clarity then.
Ruth, I keep thinking, ka’asher telchi, elech—where you go, I shall go.
Wednesday, September 1st is a day we will never forget. Ira went to the cemetery for the funeral. He returns profoundly sad.
“Never in my life have I been so close to such much pain,” he said. “Indescribable pain. The wailing of the six orphaned children following behind the lifeless bodies of their mother and father was a sound so horrific, I began to weep. Everyone did. It was as if the waves carrying the sounds of their wailing were like knives, cutting into our hearts. There was nothing to do on that day but weep.
“The levaya (funeral) was impossibly difficult. Three families, four dead, one nation torn between the cemeteries of Ashdod, Petach Tikva and Har HaZeitim. We were with Ruth today, so I followed her as she buried her Abba and Ema. All of the blasts of the shofar, meant to wake us to din, were heard that day in the sobbing of Ruth, her brothers and sisters. They are steeped in the harshest din of all.”
“Learn to do the right thing: seek justice, relieve the oppressed, render justice to the orphaned and fight for the widow”—Isaiah 1:17
“Ruth – amech ami. Your people are my people. You who have done so much chessed for others will now be embraced by the kindess of your nation.
Let’s campaign together to rally every single Jewish family to give tzedakah to the Ames family. Let us honor the legacy of Yitzchak and Tali and the values of modesty and dignity they instilled in their home. Let us take the responsibility to ensure that these beautiful children will always be materially secure.
Please, let every one of us give to the Ames children during the Yamim Norai’im, and may “He who carries out the judgment of the orphan” seal us all in the Book of Life.
Donations earmarked for the Ames family through the One Family Fund can be made online using this direct link:
https://secure.onefamilyfund.org/?RID=3q2sv .
Tamar Weissman, who is from Baltimore, lives with her husband Ira and their family in Ma’aleh Adumin, Israel.