At the beginning of the Iron Swords War, immediately after the week of October 7th, when the military rabbinate was dealing with eighty funerals a day (!), a permanent funeral execution battalion (FEU) was established – responsible for conducting funerals and memorial services for IDF fallen soldiers. This new and exciting initiative particularly emphasizes the veteran IDF fallen soldiers whose graves have no one to visit them.
The initiative of the military rabbinate was to send a cantor or a grave digger to the graves of IDF soldiers defined as "last descendants" – soldiers who have no relatives to recite Kaddish for their souls on the day of their passing.
M, the company commander in the BLK unit and the initiator of the idea, describes: "The initiative started only in this war; it wasn't a practice that existed before. It was a stroke of genius that came down from the heavens. Amid the chaos of the current war casualties, we felt it was important to also remember those who fought here before us and did not have family members to visit their graves."
On the IDF's 'Yizkor' website, there are about 400 fallen soldiers defined as 'last descendants' who have no relatives left to say Kaddish for them or visit their graves. These are mainly Holocaust survivors who endured hell in the camps, arrived in the country, and fell in wars.
The military rabbinical authority sends a cantor or a grave digger to the fallen soldier's grave on the day of passing. Sometimes, he even manages to organize a minyan and recite Kaddish, and if there is no minyan, he himself recites the Psalms with the letters of the fallen soldier's name, the letters of the soul, and El Maleh Rachamim as customary. The soldiers tell very moving stories about the arrival at the grave on the day of passing and the connections that happen on the ground.
M' emphasizes that before the cantor from the Rabbinate visits the grave of the fallen soldier, he reads about his life story, learns about his character, in which war he fought, and how he fell in battle: "We have a presentation with all the names of the last generation's fallen soldiers, what they went through in their lives, in which war they fought, and how they fell."
For example, this week we visited the grave of Chava Lubitzky, may her memory be a blessing, who immigrated to the Land of Israel after the Holocaust on a refugee ship, was sent to a displaced persons camp in Cyprus, arrived in the country, and served in the Palmach. Chava fell on the 6th of Tevet 5789 (January 7, 1949), the day before the end of the battles around Rafah, while tending to the wounds of one of the soldiers. Under heavy enemy fire, she made her way to the wounded soldier, despite her friends' warnings not to go out while the fire was raging. A shell that hit the area killed her along with the soldier she was treating. Chava was laid to rest in the eternal resting place in the cemetery in Gilad.
M' adds: "One of our soldiers visited his grave in Gilad – in the Menashe Heights, and recited Psalms over it. Our privilege is to get to know the character of the fallen, the story and the sacrifice behind the name; it connects and moves us very much."
The BLIK Battalion – which serves as the extended arm of the Identification and Burial Branch of the Military Rabbinate – is responsible for managing, producing, and conducting memorial services for IDF fallen soldiers. At the beginning of the war, the battalion was responsible for arranging all the funerals of IDF soldiers who fell in battles, and on peak days following October 7th, it held over 80 funerals in a single day.
The battalion soldiers accompany the bereaved families, hold the memorials for the seventh and thirtieth days, and even memorials decades after the fallen's passing.
The military rabbinate, the identification and burial branch, and the Black Brigade continue throughout the war to perform their difficult and complex tasks in the most professional and sensitive manner.
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