These days, a Torah scroll was written in the name of Elhanan Kalmanson, hy"d, who was murdered during the rescue of dozens of residents of Kibbutz Be'eri on the seventh of October. It will be placed in the kibbutz synagogue.
President Isaac Herzog participated today (Sunday) in writing a letter in a Sefer Torah that will be placed in the synagogue in Kibbutz Be'eri, as a symbol of the kibbutz's resurrection. The meeting was attended by Rachel Friker, a manager and one of the founders of the synagogue, who survived the massacre, and the family members of the late Elhanan Kalmanson, who was murdered while rescuing dozens of residents of the kibbutz together with his brother Menachem and nephew Itiel. Elhanan is also the cousin of the late Pdaya Mark who fell in the fierce battles in the Gaza Strip.
The president of the country said at the beginning of the meeting: "I am very excited to fulfill this enormous mitzvah, to write a letter in the Torah book in memory of Elhanan Kalmanson, hy"d. And to all the martyrs in your holy name, the defenders of the land who stood up as a hero to fight against the terrorists who came to destroy us on the day of the joy of our Torah."
"Elhanan fought so that no one would be missing"
"I am especially excited that this Torah book will be in the synagogue in Be'eri, and we will place a mezuzah in it with God's help and we will continue to pray. I want to tell the Kalmanson family how excited I am that we are observing this mitzvah in memory of Elhanan, and in memory of all the fallen, I want to thank Menachem and Itiel who were there, and to tell you that there will also be moments of joy and we are fulfilling a mitzvah here that shows that Israel's eternity will not lie."
Rachel Fricker told the meeting about the heroism of Elhanan and his family and said: "We really connected, there is some inner need to be a family. You can't really describe in words what they did there, they saved more than a hundred people. I can't forget Elhanan, I'll never forget him, his voice, the confidence he gave us when he took us out of the kibbutz."
Menachem, Elhanan's brother who also assisted in the effort to rescue the residents of Be'eri, said in the moving occasion: "Even when the body is consumed, the spiritual act is still alive and well. And in the book of the Torah there are 600,000 letters against 600,000 souls of Israel. If one letter is missing, then the entire book is lacking, the Torah book teaches us that there is a place for everyone in the Torah book and for each and every letter, Elhanan fought so that no letter would be missing in the book. So that no person would be missing and it is important that we grow as a people together, that everyone has their own place."