After 4118 Days, Hadar Goldin Hy”d Returns
Another week has gone by in Israel, a country that manufactures more headline-grabbing stories in a single day than one might see in a full month elsewhere in the world. And as usual, there is much to report this week.
First of all, I must write about Hadar Goldin, the soldier killed in Gaza in 2014, whose body was brought back to Israel on Sunday after 4118 days in captivity. Together with Hadar’s body, his weapon was returned to his family as well. That weapon, like Hadar himself, had become a veritable icon. In 2022, Hamas held a public ceremony in which Hadar’s firearm was presented to Yahya Sinwar.
Hadar Goldin was killed at the end of Operation Protective Edge. On August 1, 2014, a 72-hour ceasefire began at 8:00 in the morning, brokered by then-Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and then-Secretary of State John Kerry. This is significant, since Hadar’s father, Simcha Goldin, appealed to the U.N. and the American government to make good on their own guarantees. Since they were behind the ceasefire, he argued, they were responsible for making sure that Israeli soldiers, both captive and deceased, were returned to their homes. Indeed, the U.N. passed a resolution explicitly stipulating this. But that didn’t prevent the Goldins from waiting eleven years for their son’s return.
The ceasefire was violated by Hamas shortly after it began, when the terror group fired several rockets toward the Gaza border towns and then launched mortars as well. Meanwhile, a group of soldiers in the Givati Brigade was still operating in Gaza, searching for terror tunnels in the vicinity of Rafah. At 9:05 a.m., the Israeli soldiers encountered a group of terrorists who emerged from a tunnel, and three of the soldiers were killed: Benaya Sarel, the brigade commander, as well as Hadar Goldin and Liel Gidoni. Hadar, who held the rank of lieutenant, was an excellent soldier who came to the army from the bais medrash. The terrorists seized Hadar’s body, and in the initial hours after the battle, he was listed as a missing person who fell, in captivity. Thirty-eight hours later, on Motzoei Shabbos, the military chief rabbi, Rafi Peretz, informed Hadar’s parents that he had been killed. That determination was based partly on findings located by his comrades in the army, who had given chase in an effort to rescue Hadar from the Arabs. Those soldiers received awards for their attempt to retrieve their fallen comrade. But what is important for our purposes is that if the Israeli army had realized that it was a mistake to trust Hamas to uphold the ceasefire, Hadar and his fellow victims would almost certainly still be alive today.
On September 11, 2020, I published an interview in this newspaper with Hadar’s father, Simcha Goldin. “Hadar was an extremely intelligent young man,” Professor Goldin told me at the time. “He went to school in the settlement of Eshchar in the Galil, and then he lived in Kfar Sava. He attended a religious school in Kfar Batya and went on to learn for two years in the Bnei David pre-military academy in Eli.” Bnei David is a mechinah program that provides a quality Torah education prior to its students’ military service. “After that,” Goldin continued, “he enlisted in the army. We have four children; the youngest two are twins, Tzur and Hadar. They joined the army together; Tzur was in the Maglan unit, while Hadar joined the Givati brigade. During his two years in the mechinah program, Hadar learned a tremendous amount of Gemara. He was brilliant in that area; he was an iluy. He also wrote his own peirush on the sefer Mesillas Yeshorim. We found the handwritten peirush in the sefer he used to learn.”
As the demands for the return of Hadar’s body mounted and he took on iconic status, Hamas cruelly tormented the family and the country by withholding his remains. In the last agreement with Hamas, President Trump decided that his demand for all the deceased victims to be returned included Hadar Goldin, but the terrorists took their time. Hamas continued toying with Israel and trying its patience over the past two weeks, until Hadar’s body was finally returned this Sunday. As painful and distressing as it was, the development also triggered a wave of joy and relief, as the Goldin family finally received their long-awaited closure. When Hadar’s coffin entered Israel, the road from the border with Gaza to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute was lined with Israelis who saluted the coffin, including the families of former hostages and victims of terror, as well as many civilians.
Hashem yikom damo.
Witkoff’s Funeral Message
Israel has long been aware of the location of Hadar Goldin’s body. That is the reason that they refused to accept Hamas’ claims that they did not have the body and were unable to locate it. It has now been revealed that Israel almost managed to retrieve Goldin’s body on its own at least once in the past; however, that attempt failed. Last week, Hamas announced that the body would be released, and the country waited eagerly on Motzoei Shabbos for it to happen. At a cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke about it with certainty: “We should be receiving the body this afternoon, and the process will begin with verification of his identity.” Netanyahu emphasized the state’s commitment to the recovery of all hostages. “We said at the beginning of the war that we would bring all the hostages back, without exception,” he intoned. “Out of the 255 people who were abducted, including four who were taken captive before the war, we have so far managed to retrieve 250. We are continuing our efforts to recover the rest.”
On Sunday evening, it was confirmed that Hadar Goldin’s body had been positively identified. The chief of staff had already visited the Goldin family on Motzoei Shabbos to keep them abreast of the developments, but nothing was final until the forensic institute announced its confirmation. On Sunday evening, an official announcement was released: “After the identification process was completed by the National Center for Forensic Medicine, in collaboration with the Israel Police Force and the military rabbinate, representatives of the IDF have informed the family of Lt. Hadar Goldin that their loved one was returned to Israel and positively identified. Lt. Hadar Goldin fell in battle and was abducted in 2014 during Operation Protective Edge. The government of Israel shares the pain of the Goldin family and the families of all the deceased hostages.”
Meanwhile, the body of hostage Lior Rudaeff was returned on Shabbos. Rudaeff was a soldier, a fact that was kept under wraps until now, lest the exposure jeopardize his return. Rudaeff was 61 years old and is survived by his wife, Yaffa, his four children, and his three grandchildren. He was a member of the security squad of Kibbutz Nir Yitzchok and was killed while defending the kibbutz on Simchas Torah. His body was abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip by Islamic Jihad terrorists.
On Motzoei Shabbos, Israel also received the body of Itai Chen, a soldier who was abducted from his tank in Nachal Oz on Simchas Torah. Chen was buried on Sunday, and a video was played at the funeral in which American envoy Steve Witkoff eulogized the niftar, even though he did not know him personally. “Today, as we bring Itai to his final rest, I want to say this,” Witkoff said. “Itai’s story isn’t a story of defeat. It is a story of love and ongoing heroism. His parents’ dedication, and the compassion and unity that it stirred throughout the world, are unequivocal proof of the fact that love conquers fear, hate, and even death.” Addressing the family, Witkoff added, “You showed me the meaning of faith. You taught me what true resilience means, and you reminded me, through your pain and your kindness, that our purpose on earth isn’t only to survive but to love each other as if every life is our own. May G-d bless the Chen family and all the hostages, and may He bless the State of Israel and the United States. May G-d comfort everyone with the knowledge that Itai’s light will continue to shine in all the lives that he touched, including mine, in a very deep way. May we all honor him by living with the same courage, hope, and endless love that defined Itai’s life. Thank you.”
Police Chief Clashes with Both Sides
The case against the military advocate general is the topic of a separate article this week, but it seems that no matter how much I write about it, there will always be more to add. Sure enough, there were further developments in this case after that article was completed.
Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was released to house arrest on Friday. Many people found this strange, given that she had first committed a serious crime (leaking investigative material to the press) and then had committed an even more serious crime (lying to the chief of staff, the defense minister, and then the Supreme Court about the probe into the leak), and then, after she confessed to leaking the video, she tried to obstruct the investigation and “lost” her cell phone, which was somehow found at the beach on Friday. Many have questioned why she wasn’t arrested immediately and why she was released to house arrest. On Sunday morning, a medical team was summoned to her home when her life seemed to be in danger, and she was rushed to the hospital.
The question of who will lead the investigation is becoming increasingly tangled as well. As I mentioned in my article, Justice Minister Levin decided to assign the investigation to an external figure, retired Judge Asher Kula, while Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara decided to appoint State Attorney Amit Aisman, the closest person to her, to lead the investigation. This happened after the legal advisor of the Ministry of Justice told Baharav-Miara that she couldn’t personally manage the investigation due to a conflict of interest.
After Levin and Baharav-Miara made their respective decisions about the management of the investigation, Kula and Aisman both reached out to the chief of police to ask for updates on the investigation, including information on what has been done thus far and what they have discovered. For now, police chief Dani Levi has decided to ignore both of them. He will not respond to any requests for information until the Supreme Court decides which of the two competing officials—the justice minister or the attorney general—is actually empowered to choose someone to direct the investigation, which will automatically determine whether the police must answer to Kula or to Aisman. Meanwhile, the police chief’s conduct has triggered even more conflict, and both sides have attacked him, with one claiming that he should have listened to the judge while the other insists that he should have obeyed the state attorney. As anyone could have predicted, the Supreme Court received a flurry of petitions against the attorney general, against the justice minister, and against Judge Kula as well. The judges of the Supreme Court are scheduled to rule on the petitions on Tuesday, and we already know that the case will be heard by a panel of conservative judges; however, experience has shown that conservative judges have the potential to be among Netanyahu’s most ardent opponents.
Media Stokes Hatred for Torah Learners
The atzeres tefillah in Yerushalayim two weeks ago is still featuring in the headlines today, but I would like to turn my attention to the headlines that appeared in the newspapers in its immediate aftermath. Shortly after the atzeres, Yediot Acharonot’s front page was divided between two leading stories, one dedicated to the case of the military advocate general and the other concerning the chareidi rally. In other newspapers, it dominated almost the entire front page. But in Yediot Acharonot, it was described as “the chareidi day of rage.” Not a day of tefillah or crying out to Hashem, but a day of rage.
“Hundreds of thousands of protestors are expected to attend today’s million-man march against the IDF draft,” read the caption accompanying the front-page image. The chareidi community has worked hard to make the point that the message of the atzeres was positive — that it was a rally in support of bnei Torah, not a protest against anyone — but the media insists on framing it as a show of hostility, thus fueling resentment against its participants. And that is not all. Beneath the mention of the “day of rage” was a smaller paragraph that read, “The major protest expected to bring Yerushalayim to a standstill and create chaos on the roads will unite all chareidi factions around a single, firm message: ‘We’d rather die than be drafted.’ Facing them are the reservists and their families with a message of their own: ‘If the serving public continues to carry the draft evaders on their shoulders, Israel will be led down the path to ruin.’ Yesterday, the Supreme Court scolded a state representative, ‘We have the sense that you are enforcing the law only against secular draft dodgers.’”
The media’s manipulation — its deliberate efforts to shape public opinion through sly messaging and carefully chosen language — reached new heights in these headlines. With wickedness and cunning, the editors packed every possible provocation into a single page. First, they labeled the rally a protest against the IDF draft; had they described it as a show of support for Torah learners instead — a positive message rather than a negative one — it would have sounded much better. Second, they warned that the rally was expected to paralyze Yerushalayim and create chaos on the roads, implying that the chareidim intended to create misery for the rest of the country. Did they use similar language when reporting on the right-wing protests in Givat Ram or the Kaplan protests on the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, which created similar paralysis and chaos? Of course not! And they also invoked the slogan that declares, “We’d rather die than be drafted.” This wording does not accurately reflect the speech or thought processes of any of the hundreds of thousands of participants in the atzeres. The small group that coined the slogan, which has earned its fair share of ridicule, boycotted the atzeres on principle. Moreover, the country’s Torah learners are described twice on the page as draft evaders, a loaded term meant to provoke resentment. Finally, perhaps we can understand the reference to the Supreme Court — although the judges must be completely detached from reality if they expect 50,000 bnei Torah to be taken into custody, and one must also wonder why they ignore the petitions against draft evasion in the Arab sector. But what was the purpose of dragging reservists into this story? This is actually part of a larger trend; Yediot Acharonot has been repeatedly publicizing the comments of reservists, mostly religious soldiers, who attack the chareidim for refusing to enlist in the army. Such is the state of journalism in Israel today.
The Plague of Violence in Secular Schools
Let’s move on to some other stories. Although it is certainly high on our list of priorities, we don’t know very much about the draft law, other than the fact that MK Boaz Bismuth claims that he has already prepared a draft of the bill and is waiting for approval to bring it to the Knesset. As for whether the chareidi community is in favor of the bill or against it, it depends on whom you ask. Most of the gedolei Yisroel appear to have given the chareidi Knesset members the green light to proceed with it. At the same time, the authorities are continuing to arrest yeshiva bochurim, primarily in secular cities, perhaps because the military police are afraid to enter chareidi areas. It is reported that about 30 yeshiva bochurim are currently behind bars, which is a very distressing phenomenon for all of us.
There has also been a development on the diplomatic front. When President Trump spoke in the Knesset on Hoshanah Rabbah, he proclaimed proudly that additional Muslim countries would soon be joining the Abraham Accords. Well, it seems that he was right. On Friday, he announced that Kazakhstan has become the latest country to join the accords. “I just had a great call with Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev,” Trump announced. “Kazakhstan is the first country in my second term to join the agreements, the first of many.” The president added, “This is a major step forward in building bridges across the world. Today, more nations are lining up to embrace peace and prosperity through my Abraham Accords. There are many more countries trying to join this club of strength.”
Kazakhstan is the largest country in Central Asia by area. Its economy is based partly on crude oil and mineral resources. It has a population of about 20 million people, the majority being Sunni Muslims, with a Jewish population of slightly more than 2000. In its first statement regarding its plan to join the accords, Kazakhstan described it as “a natural and logical continuation of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy.”
Another issue that cannot be ignored — and I have no real interest in maligning Israel’s public school system, but there is also no point in burying one’s head in the sand — is the problem of violence in secular schools. On Friday, there was a brawl between students in a school in Haifa, and several students were rushed for medical treatment, while the police opened an investigation. This followed two even more serious incidents in which students were stabbed by their peers in schools. Last Wednesday, a stabbing took place at a Jewish school in Ashdod, and the victim was rushed to the hospital in “stable” condition. The previous incident was in an Arab school in Kfar Kara, where the victim was stabbed to death. There has always been violence in secular schools, but it seems to have reached record heights.
High Demand for Kosher Wine
The return of the hostages from Gaza has led to waves of increased emunah. In the earlier stages of this process, we witnessed figures such as Agam Berger, who famously declared that she had chosen the path of faith. More recently, Bar Kuperstein wrote, “How good is Hashem,” when he returned from Gaza. Almost every freed hostage has returned with a story of faith and newfound interest in Yiddishkeit. Before they could even recover from their ordeals, the former captives were asking for tefillin, tzitzis, and even arba minim on Hoshanah Rabbah before sunset. One of the hostages related that he recited mezonos on everything he ate, since it was the only brocha he knew. The average Israeli, who felt lost and bewildered since October 7, has heard the clear message from the returning hostages that the world has a Creator and that He is the sole true Power. There is a genuine wave of spiritual awakening, even if some skeptics grit their teeth and try to deny it. Secular elements claim that the religious revival is superficial, that it will pass, and that it isn’t serious, but we know the truth: They are the ones who are superficial, transient, and not serious.
This week, I read a newspaper interview with a winemaker who owns two non-kosher wineries and is now opening a third one with kosher certification. “I realized that I couldn’t ignore the reality,” he told the interviewer. “Even secular consumers want kosher wine.”
The newspaper explains to its readers, “There are almost no non-kosher wineries remaining in Israel, and that is not by chance. Non-kosher wine is hard to sell in the Holy Land, and it is even harder to export it abroad and sell to Jews in the Diaspora. Israel has hundreds of wineries, but only a handful today lack kashrus supervision.”
“It’s impossible to export non-kosher wine from Israel,” the winemaker is quoted as explaining. “The markets outside Israel want kosher wine. Every importer has a market of Jews, and he has no reason to import wine that isn’t kosher. Other than that, it is much easier to sell kosher wine, since the religious community in Israel is only growing larger. Five years ago, no one asked if the wine was kosher. Today, even secular Israelis will not drink wine that doesn’t have kashrus certification. The country is becoming religious, and it is affecting every area, including agriculture and winemaking.”
The Chazon Ish on State Funding
Rav Yaakov Edelstein once told the following story about the Chazon Ish, whose yahrtzeit was marked last week: During the Chazon Ish’s lifetime, there was a danger that talmidei yeshivos would be taken to the army. A certain talmid chochom in Rav Yaakov Edelstein’s family approached the Ponovezher Rov and told him that he had an idea to prevent the persecution of yeshiva bochurim. He pointed out that the Israeli regime derived its power and support from fundraising campaigns among wealthy Jews in America. “If we ask the Agudas Harabbonim of America, whose members are on friendly terms with the Ponovezher Rov, to cut off their fundraising, Ben-Gurion and his friends will realize very quickly that it isn’t worth their while to harm yeshiva bochurim,” the man asserted.
The Ponovezher Rov replied, “That may be a reasonable idea, but the Chazon Ish doesn’t support it.”
“When someone needs a brocha or has a complex shailah, he can go to the Chazon Ish, but this is different,” the talmid chochom argued. “This is a strategy to save the yeshiva bochurim. Are we not permitted to come up with original ideas?”
The Ponovezher Rov replied, “Do you think that the Chazon Ish is only more of a tzaddik and a talmid chochom than we are? He is also much more intelligent than we are! If he says that it is not an appropriate step to take, then it should not be done.”
This week also marks the yahrtzeit of Rav Dov Yaffe, who is the subject of our next story, which was told by Rav Binyomin Efrati: A young yeshiva bochur once asked Rav Dov if it would be worthwhile to study secular psychology books to deepen his understanding of human nature for the sake of avodas Hashem. Rav Dov replied, “But there is so much to learn about that from Rashi on Chumash as well!”
Indeed, Rav Binyomin Efrati’s son-in-law — my brother, Rav Avrohom Yaakovson, the current rov of Be’er Yaakov — wrote a kuntres titled Nefesh HaTorah, which discusses the psychological insights that can be culled from Rashi’s commentary on the Torah. For instance, he writes, “When a person needs to admit failure or guilt, he must be given a dignified way to cover for himself. Otherwise, he may be unable to acknowledge his mistake and will continue becoming entangled in trouble.” This insight is based on Rashi’s comment on the posuk that states that anyone who is “fearful or weak of heart” is instructed to leave the battlefield during a war. Rashi explains that this refers not to a person who fears the physical perils of war but to someone who has sinned and fears that his sins will cause him to fail in battle. Rashi adds that the Torah exempts people who are newly married or have recently planted vineyards or built homes so that sinners will not be embarrassed to leave the front lines, since onlookers will assume that they had a different reason for leaving and that it wasn’t due to their sins.
