JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The rabbi of battalion 8718, which lost several soldiers during Sunday’s offensive in the Gazan neighborhoods, eulogized Yakir Biton, one of the soldiers.
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“Yakir loved the Torah and always wanted to know what the Halacha is,” said Rabbi Itai Asman, the battalion’s rabbi. “Before the war, when we were in operational activity, Yakir called me to ask for a pair of green Tzitzis and said it was very important to him. I brought them to him when the war began.
“I saw and was impressed by his Emunat Chachamim. Whenever he asked me the Halacha, I told him my opinion and sometimes he would say humbly that his rabbi held otherwise.”
“I told him that he should make that person his Rav and thus emerge from his doubts, as written in Pirkei Avot. I really respected him for his Emunat Chachamim, I wish I could reach that level.
“Last Thursday I met him in Gaza, I brought the soldiers a Sefer Torah for Kriat HaTorah. Yakir immediately went up to the Sefer Torah, kissed it and asked me to photograph him with the Sefer Torah, which gave him strength and confidence.
“I accompanied Yakir for years in the battalion and I saw his emotional and spiritual maturity. Every reserve duty he would come and tell me about how he had taken up another Mitzvah and I was so moved. Yakir was a Baal Teshuva in every sense of the word, he was always advancing from level to level until he reached the level of a Kadosh who is above the level of angels.
“We don’t understand the heavenly account but we know that the death of Tzadikim atones for the generation and all the more so the death of Kedoshim. Yakir loved the Jewish nation and the people of Israel and wished for their success and growth.”
Yakir Biton (34), a Jerusalem resident, fell in battle on Sunday. He is survived by his wife and three children.
May his blood be avenged.