JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Yael Shevach lost her husband Raziel in a 2018 terror attack near her Samarian home of Havat Gilad. Shevach vowed to continue to raise her six children in an atmosphere of joy and not wallow in her bereavement but she did cherish the items she had from her husband, including the wedding ring which she never took off even after his murder.
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On a trip last week to the Judean desert with some of her friends, Shevach entered the Ein Mabua spring near Ein Prat in Wadi Kelt and after leaving the spring realized that the ring was missing. Despairing of finding the ring, Shevach wrote a lament on Facebook for the ring, which she said she wore “every day except for Yom Kippur” and added movingly in a reference to her dead husband, “I will never wear another ring until I agree to truly separate from you.”
Since Shevach is a popular figure in Israel who has mentored many people in coping with hardship and bereavement, there were many responses to the post by people expressing hope that she would find the ring. One of the responses was from Kobi Helfgot, the Parks Authority’s director of the Ein Prat site, who said that his staff would search for the ring.
Helfgot asked his workers to search for the ring and one of them, a Palestinian Arab from Jericho named Id Najum, managed to discover the ring in a hole inside the pool where Shevach had been. The ring was taken to a safe in Helfgot’s office and on Sunday the Parks Authority workers returned the ring to Shevach.
Raziel Shevach Hy’d and his wife Yael
The ring restored to Yael
I hope that the Palestinian man who found the ring and returned it receives a reward and a measure of honor. Even though he doesn’t have the Mitzvah, he performed the מעשה טוב of השבת אבידה and deserves honor. It would be a kiddush Hashem to show the other Pals that Jews award kindness with kindness.