In a heartfelt interview with Arutz Sheva during their Yom HaZikaron broadcast, Rabbi Yoram Eliyahu, father of Sergeant First Class (res.) Yedidya Eliyahu Hy”d of Karnei Shomron, who fell in battle in Gaza, shared his perspective on loss and resilience.
Rabbi Eliyahu expressed his discomfort with the term “bereavement,” stating, “We are not the families of bereavement, but the families of heroism. If you call it bereavement, it already has a negative effect on you, and this is not the right message that we should be conveying to the people of Israel. I say this both personally and nationally, the purpose of the Heroism Forum is to bring life back to the people of Israel, until we achieve our military victory and the collapse of Hamas.”​
Reflecting on his son’s dedication, Rabbi Eliyahu recounted Yedidya’s guiding principle in combat: ‘I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till I destroyed them.’ He emphasized the importance of destroying the enemy, stating, “We are not experiencing in some case of cot death or in an accident. We have set out to avenge the blood of our Jewish brothers and sisters that has been shed, to avenge the humiliation of Simchat Torah.”​
Despite the profound pain of losing his son, Rabbi Eliyahu encouraged his daughter-in-law to remarry and continue her life. He shared, “The fact that my daughter-in-law remarried shows that ‘with their death they commanded us to live.’ They want us to live and that is for their benefit and honor. From the first moment we supported her and told her that after a year we would begin the journey. We see the children with someone to be there for them and it gives us great joy. These are our grandchildren and we truly feel that she has ‘chosen life.'”​
Addressing the process of coping with their loss, Rabbi Eliyahu said, “From the first moment we cried a lot. It is a natural human emotion and there is not a day that we do not see his image before us. My wife and I talk about it a lot. At our daughter-in-law’s wedding we cried, but it was not a cry of pain but a cry of purification. Every heartbreak has a purpose.” He concluded, “Yom Hazikaron is a day of brokenness, meriting Independence Day.”​
{Matzav.com Israel}