Chagai Lober is the father of IDF Sergeant Major (res.) Elisha Yehonatan Lober. Elisha lived in Yitzhar and served in the 179th Reserve Armored Brigade’s 8104th Battalion. He was killed in battle in Gaza on December 25.
Elisha was also a former youth coordinator, a student in the Yeshiva of Roee Israel and worked for the Shomron Regional Council.
Elisha is survived by his wife (who was pregnant at the time of his death), Aviya, their ten-month-old son, his parents Chagai and Techiya, and his eight siblings. Aviya gave birth to their son Amatzya after his passing.
This is what Chagai wrote as Israel commemorates the first anniversary of the cursed day October 7th 2023, which started the Israel-Gaza War in which Elisha was killed.
"The calendar insists that a year has passed.
And we wonder [because it feels like]
Not even a minute has passed since the day of we parted
And our bodies have not yet cooled from the warmth of his touch.
And his embrace still wraps around our heart
And his melting smile still floats like a feather in space.
And the door that closed still echoes.
And our eyes still follow his steps down the street.
No– A year has not passed.
A second passed, or maybe two minutes.
And maybe it's time that froze, or maybe it's our hearts that are frozen.
The calendar insists that only a year has passed.
And we wonder,
We have aged a thousandfold.
And generations and years have passed over us.
And a thousand seasons have changed.
And our lives have passed in a parade of soldiers.
And a strange old age has jumped upon us,
And we walk with hunched shoulders,
Like people whose day has come.
No. A year has not passed.
Our entire lives have passed before our eyes,
And we watched them with longing eyes.
And we asked to slow down
The calendar insists that a year has passed.
And we are right.
Because a year is not the distance between numbers and hands.
It is not the passing of days and months.
It is the distance between the heart and its loved ones,
It is the journey full of sensations and small details.
And a year has already passed
And only a year has passed.
And we remain,
Freaked out."
May Elisha's memory be for a blessing and may his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion.