Henkin brother: Hatred, not terror, killed couple, as unceasing struggle continues

As their children watched, Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist on Oct. 1 in an early salvo in the current spurt of anti-Jewish violence.

Rabbi Henkin’s brother, Yagil Henkin, delivered a eulogy which contained important truths about the ongoing conflict in Israel and around the world.

“There is no such a thing as ‘terror of stones,’ just like there is no ‘terror by individuals,’ no ‘car terror,’ nor is Jerusalem ‘plagued by stone throwing’,” said Yagil Henkin. “And similarly Eitam and Naama were not murdered (in contrast to a headline on a certain media site) by a passing car firing at them.”

Here are excerpts from Yagil Henkin’s eulogy.

The Torah world lost one of the great rabbis and leaders of the next generation, and the academic world lost an excellent researcher. And I lost a brother, which you can imagine, isn’t less important for me.

However, this is not the only reason you all came here [to the levaya]. The many people who are here, and the reason we eulogize during the Succot holiday as distinct from the usual halakhic ruling, is that it was not “blind fate” which took the lives of Eitam and Naama. They are harugei malchut, the term used for those who died as part of the unceasing struggle of the Jewish people.

If you go to Mt. Herzl, you will discover that the first death from “hostile acts” buried there is Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Tzoref, who was murdered 164 years ago. This means, from the perspective of the State of Israel, that the national struggle of the Jewish people did not begin sixty seven years ago with the establishment of the State of Israel. Nor did the murderous acts against Jews commence with the 1948 Declaration of Independence.

Those acts were the consequence of hostility to the notion of the Jews returning to their ancient homeland and living there as a people. Eitam and Naama became involuntary fighters in this struggle, slain by acts of hostility. They are not “terror victims.”