How can the traumatic experience of returning from a happy holiday to a home ravaged by burglars culminate in discovering a world of kindness and commitment?
Yet, it happened.
We spent the Pesach holiday in Jerusalem in the company of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Returning home, the spirit of happiness still lingered within us as we were met at the entrance of our apartment in Netanya by the horror of an open and smashed door and the discovery that our home was mercilessly ransacked.
The locksmith who came to replace our shattered door with an impenetrable steel entrance noticed the tattooed number on my arm. His countenance filled with emotion. Not only did he provide the service at minimal cost but graciously invited us to a family dinner on Yom HaShoah. At the appointed hour, he came in person to drive us to a scenic settlement some distance away where, in a beautiful villa, we were greeted by his wife and three daughters, their faces exuding welcoming warmth.
During the dinner I came to know Kobi’s wife, Sarit, the source of the spirit of loving-kindness pervading the family. On our drive to the settlement, Kobi had related an unbelievable tale of virtues about his wife that now, upon personal contact, became evident.
Sarit Ben Yehuda was delighted to reveal that she was born in Tveria, venerated in Jewish history as one of Judaism’s Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed. Her parents decided to go on vacation to Tveria from Petach Tikvah where they lived, and during their brief stay her mother unexpectedly went into labor and gave birth to twin girls, Sarit and Rivkah.
The Ben Yehuda children were brought up in the spirit of “Eretz Yisrael HaShlema” (The Land of Israel in its Entirety) ideology according to which the Modern State of Israel was to comprise the entire territory of the Biblical Land of Israel, including all areas occupied by Arabs. Consequently Nehemia Ben Yehuda became one of the early members of Gush Emunim, the group that initiated the settlement movement: building homes for Jews who wished to live in the above, Arab-occupied areas. It was a risky activity as the government vehemently opposed it.
How was it done? Nehemia, who owned a crane company, would deliver wooden fabricated caravans to specific locations under the cover of darkness, often bypassing military outposts by entering and passing through Arab villages. All the present thriving communities in Judea and Samaria, such as Ariel, Shilo, Maale Adumim, Beth El, Kiryat Arba, Peduel, Elkana and Rachelim, were created in this clandestine, extremely strenuous manner, with Nehemia’s sweat, cranes and tears of joy. As soon as she was old enough, his daughtert Sarit assisted him in his labor of love, joining in the exhilaration of building “Eretz Yisrael HaShlema.”
This belief was coupled with the spirit of “Am Yisrael HaShalem” (One United People), in the Ben Yehuda household: to love and help all Jews without distinction. When he died, in 2002, the Jews he loved and helped founded a settlement in his memory – Nofe Nehemia – a religious Zionist community east of the city of Ariel.
“It’s essential for me to pass on to my daughters the legacy of love of united Eretz and Am Yisrael – the embrace of the Land and the People as one,” concluded Sarit Ben Yehuda Georgi.