Aharon Horowitz
Brother of Rabbi Eli the 14th
Oh my brother oh my sister
Many praised your wisdom, your devotion, your holiness, and I came here today to speak as a little brother to my big brother. And to my sister - because as a nurse I had Dina - a big sister.
As a little brother I have followed you from the day I stood my ground to this very day. You paved the way for us like a pillar of fire and a cloud before the camp.
To me, you were the pioneer in the family's immigration to Eretz Israel. Your first love was for the brown soil of Kibbutz Hulata where the Carmeli family welcomed you as a son. You wallowed in the mud, passing lines in cotton but your great pride was on the great flower garden you worked so hard in - to grow every seedling, to take a flower out of the ground. I followed you, after this great longing for beauty, for blossoming - for the strong desire to bring life. A wish, that you stay with you until the day you die - like last Saturday when you were with us in Efrat - that you could not contain your soul from the flowering of the anemones, and even on Friday the eve of the murder you walked in nature with Dina on Lupine Hill. You loved the Land of Israel neither as a metaphor nor as a parable - you were willing to sacrifice for it. What pride I had in swearing in at the Western Wall when you received the paratroopers' red beret. You loved the Land of Israel not as a metaphor, not as a parable - but stones and dirt rugs - dirt rugs that gather you back to their lap today.
Oh my brother oh my sister
I followed you bro when you courted Dina. She later said that she saw you as a burning fire while she was like water - flowing with reality and connected to it. And maybe he was the water and she was the fire. Fire and water, heaven - a pairing from heaven. On the subject of intimacy, you were for us the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud - the source of water. Preparing many grooms and Dina many brides, including me and Esther Uri and Michal. Who but you, my great brother, have learned the secrets of love, the secret of stickiness, the power of purity and holiness.
But the biggest preparation was just looking at you - a couple in love with brides. Love that is all sensitivity to every movement in the soul of the other. More than once he reminded me of the image of the ideal relationship - when the prophet Jeremiah came to the Cave of the Patriarchs to ask the patriarchs to pray for the people of Israel on the eve of the destruction he looked for Abraham and found him in the bosom of Sarah. Here - he said - even death does not separate them, it is a connection of eternity. Indeed, death has not separated and cannot separate you. You are the eternal, beautiful couple, as the poet Rachel puts it - those who will die in the spring.
Oh my brother oh my sister
I followed you my brother into the house you built which despite the intimacy was wide open. Maybe it was Dina's music that turned the atmosphere into a kind of continuous symphony of joy of life and maybe it was Eli's sense of humor that made the house a place we always felt comfortable in. - I have a feeling that even now he is looking at us from above with a slightly amused look at all the hustle and bustle around. - And maybe it was just the great humanity that erupts - a unique human love that does not know how to differentiate between religious and secular, right and left and accepts everyone wherever he is.
You talked a lot about our loving father Abraham, and you and Dina were a living example of this view in everyday life. Even though you had your own difficulties you always had time to share their troubles with others. How many times have we and many others like us turned to you in times of distress. You always calmed us down and directed us to a safe shore. From you we have learned how parents should be involved in the love and wisdom of their children's lives. A close-knit family loves. You have been a partner in matchmaking births and raising your children. Dina once said that being a mother is constantly praying.
In general, Eli and Dina's main interest was the practice of repair. Some dealt with the depths of their souls in order to mend. Some helped others fix their minds. Never give up even in the most difficult situations. They had an optimism that at times seemed excessive but really stemmed from a great belief in the life forces and in the one who gave them.
Oh my sister my sister Dina, one sentence you said last Saturday when you were with us is etched in my memory and expresses the great joy of life and the tireless optimism - man danced before he could walk and sang before he could speak. What great hope you have for man.
I followed you, my brother, to the depths of your view. I could only turn to you. Who else is an extreme intellectual who did not leave a book of thought that he did not read and yet a wise student who is completely immersed in D. Amot of Halacha - who saw in the Torah the redemption of man. Who like them were so open and liberal and yet consistent in their way while adhering as easily as severely? Who saw the love of the whole, statehood, the state, the people, the army and the Torah as sublime values that are inseparable. With whom could we talk about both post-modernism and the process of redemption according to Rabbi Kook's view? There are not many of these.
Oh my brother oh my sister
To me you have taken your place as the leader of the family - to you we have turned in everything. When Dad needed surgery you took command and when Mom got sick you took care of all the matters. Now you have left us without leadership. But not just us leaving. In such difficult times with Israel, we need someone to explain to him what is happening to him. What is the significance of the events that befall us. And here is an empty space. We lost some of the few who could give explanations, who could put logic into a falling apart world.
I will miss you very much, my brother Elnatan. I will miss my sister Dina very much - have peace.
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