Last update - 00:00 13/03/2008
Jerusalem yeshiva commemorates 8 students slain in terror attack
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
Mercaz Harav yeshiva held on Thursday a mass memorial service for its eight students who were killed by a Palestinian gunman last week.
Addressing hundreds of his followers, yeshiva head Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss said that "our hearts refuse to come to terms [with the loss], the pain only deepens. All we can do is manage the pain."
Referring to recent reports of rabbis urging 'measure for measure' revenge, Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger, who also spoke at the ceremony, said that "we hear calls that are not in line with the way we were brought up. Underground organizations of any kind are unwarranted, according neither to the Halakha nor to any other worldview. The call should be aimed at the government and the prime minister, to do anything so that the killers and their friends are brought to justice, literally."
The brother of the slain student Yehonatan Yitzchak Eldar said that "it is unacceptable that time after time, whenever terrorists raise their hands to attack Jews, no one gets in their way."
"We live in an absurd reality, in which the legal system was able to approve the expulsion of thousands of religious families and the demolition of their homes, but fails to do the same to the family of the despicable terrorist who killed the students," he added.
Rabbi Elishav Avihayil, the father of Segev Pniel Avihayil who was also killed, said that "the killers brought a terrible disaster upon us, but at the same time strengthened our spirit of unity and steadfastness, which we tend to overlook. This spirit should be disseminated to the entire people of Israel."
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