That Friday night, Alex Tzvitman’s wife was having a birthday party. Many friends and relatives were visiting when Alex got the call in the middle of the festivities. He apologized and said he had to go. That was the last time his wife, his family and his friends would see him. During the eulogies, one of the speakers, another member of the team, mentioned that Alex was always the first one on any call. Alex would often get there, then call him up and ask, ”Where are you? I’m waiting.” That was his greatness and he will always leave his impression on us.
What better examples could there be for a community?
Ever since the spies reported back to Moshe about the Land — ”All the people we saw were giants…we felt like grasshoppers and that’s how they saw us” (Numbers 13:32-33) — the Jewish people have hidden from their destiny, have cowered from their potential for greatness. But Hebron has always been the land of Giants — giants of spirit, giants of vision, and giants of self-sacrifice for the Jewish people.
May the Giants of Hebron from the past — Avraham and Sara, Isaac and Rivka, Jacob and Leah, Ruth and Yishai, King David (who lived and ruled in Hebron before Jerusalem), and Avner (general of the ancient Israeli army), who are all buried there, and Calev, who came to pray there — be joined by Yitzhak Bo’anish, Alex Duchan, and Alex Tzvitman, and all the others who have lived and died there.
May we, those they left behind, be worthy of their roshem, their impression of courage, of greatness; may we absorb it, learn their lessons of life, and in turn become Giants ourselves because of them.
