Life and Death in Israel: Automobile Accidents

Folks reading the news overseas or watching CNN, "Faux" News, the BBC, CBC, or TV1 or TV2 in France, read about peace plans, and peace processes, terror attacks and terrorists, the "poor Palestinians" and American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swishing her spiked heeled derrière and her nasty face from one place to another, spinning one lie after another while she attempts to pursue "America's best interests" and the lie the Americans and Europeans call "peace in the Middle East".

But life and death in Israel is about a whole lot more than the trash you folks see or read overseas.

First of all, to my surprise, Israel has a drinking problem - something I did not realize was true, but is. Secular Jews have taken to driving with open bottles as they go to and from the nightclubs that open on Friday night (in violation of the Jewish Sabbath), and the inevitable happens when liquor gets mixed with people who drive like madmen, hate to be taken for suckers, and who are chasing a good time. Every weekend, more human sacrifices are made at the altar of secular madness because of the drunkenness of the drivers. Just like in America.

The biggest cause of death outside of disease here is automobile accidents.

Unfortunately, not all automobile accidents are caused by drunk driving. Working days here are long, and the trips that one makes from home to work or school can be long and very tiring. I regularly fall asleep on the bus ride to Jerusalem from Ma'aleh Levona and back.

A couple of days ago, Aviatar and a neighbor boy were hitching a ride - a common practice in Judea and Samaria for teenagers (and adults) who do not drive. The driver fell asleep at the wheel; the rider at the passenger's side grabbed the wheel, the driver roused himself and the two managed to swerve the car out of the direction of an on-coming car, avoiding a head-on collision. But the two cars did collide. Aviatar, apparently in the back seat, was hit by the on-coming car, and suffered brain stem damage and bleeding around the brain. Of all the passengers, he was the only one hurt. He was taken to Hadassah 'Ein Kerem Hospital, put in intensive care and seemed to be improving - but yesterday, Thursday 12 July, the blood around his brain was apparently too much for him to survive as other than a vegetable; Aviatar slipped away to the other side...

So it was that last night I went to a funeral at the Shilo cemetery, a funeral that started at 11:00 at night. Holding outdoor funerals at night is apparently a common practice in Israel. Jewish law requires that the body be buried as soon as possible, and particularly within 24 hours. Headlights dotted Highway 60 as car after car pulled into Shilo, parking along the road and unloading more passengers who walked up quietly to the cemetery. When the ceremony began, there were something on the order of 500 people there; come to pay honor to Aviatar Mordekhai ben Akiva v'Malka, z"l, a youth not even eighteen years old, and one of six children of a village family.

It was here that you could see the people of the village of Ma'aleh Levona and the village of Shilo knit and pull themselves together, as grown men cried and wept out loud, inconsolable in their weeping. My sons, used to the stoicism and denial of emotion that encompasses so much of American society, could not believe this. My younger boy commented that he had never seen nor heard grown men cry so hard and so loud.

Jewish funerals are simple events. The rabbi of the village began what are called hespedím - a term that loosely translates as eulogies - and others who knew Aviatar continued. After a while, someone said "éfo ábba?" (where's dad?) and Akiva was given the microphone. Some parents are, at such events, able to say some remarks of farewell. Akiva, unable to, did what any male Jew does upon the death of a loved one. He recited Kaddísh, a prayer that indicates moving from one stage in the prayer liturgy (or in life) to the next. Aviatar's brothers who were aged 13 and above also recited Kaddísh and the body was brought up to the grave that had already been dug. Aviatar's body was lowered into its final resting place, covered in only a shroud, as Jewish law requires. The final prayers were said, and one individual, the father of the young man who had fallen asleep at the wheel said the final remarks, asking the forgiveness of Aviatar for all that he had done, before the ceremony ended with the bereaved father reciting Kaddish once more.

All I can hope for was that those whom I or my loved ones ride with in future will either stay awake at the wheel, or pull over to the side of the road and grab forty winks for a few minutes...

A life might be at stake.

Barúkh Dayán haEmét - Blessed is the True Judge.

May the memory of Aviatar ben Akiva v'Malka be only for a blessing upon his family and friends and upon all who knew and loved him. May the Almighty comfort his family, all who knew and loved Aviatar, z"l; may the Almighty comfort all the mourners in Israel.

Shabbat Shalom from the Hill of Frankincense (Ma'aleh Levoná) in the mountains north of Jerusalem, the Eternal Capital of the People of Israel.