An Israeli Boy’s Dream of Peace

August 25, 2014

This weekend, I spent a wonderful day playing with some of my grandchildren – really, one of the most glorious days of my life. There is something about the innocence of children that reminds you that the most cherished and most beautiful moments of life are the simplest ones.

Through the day, however, I could not get Daniel Tragerman out of my mind. Daniel was a 4-year-old Israeli boy who was killed on Friday when a terrorist mortar struck his home in Nahal Oz, not far from Gaza. His heartbroken mother told the Times of Israel that the family had been preparing to travel to the relative safety of her mother’s house near Tel Aviv when a code red siren sounded. “The children were playing in a tent inside the house,” she said, “and from the moment of the siren to the explosion only three seconds passed. We didn’t have time to get the children and go into the protected room.” The pain this family must be experiencing right now defies description.

Today, I ask you to pray for comfort and strength for the Tragermans, whose lives have been so cruelly and horribly turned upside down by this evil act. At Daniel’s funeral, his mother said, “We always said that you’d be the youngest world leader who would bring peace; so, if not in life then, we hope, in death”; let us pray, too that this dream comes to fruition. And take a moment, as I was able to do this weekend, to stop and embrace your loved ones, and to enjoy and thank God for the life you have together.

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
President and Founder, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews^® of Canada