Hello, this is Yael Shevach, the widow of Rabbi Raziel Shevach HY"D who was murdered by a terrorist while driving home a year ago. An important event took place yesterday, a great celebration at the International Conference Center in Jerusalem. Rabbinic certification was granted to 789 new rabbis in Israel.
It was a moving ceremony, before a diverse audience, in the presence of thousands of family members, after years of intense study and exams.
With Israeli elections less than 2 months away, from right and left we are being showered with party platforms. But these new rabbis reminded us The Platform – the Torah.
The platform that Moses received at Sinai, and passed on to Joshua, and so on and so forth, generation after generation, for them, for all of us.
My husband Raziel HY"D was also supposed to be standing there last night on that stage in a new shirt, a handsome tie and a big smile, to receive his certification authorizing him to serve as the rabbi of a city from the Chief Rabbis. The certificate that he labored so tirelessly for, days and nights on end.
Raziel's friends were all there, and they told me that during the ceremony, they felt a great void. It turns out that my husband is still very present, through his absence, and not just for me.
Last night, during the ceremony, I imagined Raziel watching this Simchat HaTorah, this celebration of Torah, from Above.
And I thought to myself that maybe in the Heavens there was ceremony taking place as well. And for his great labor for Torah here in the Land of Israel, my Raziel received his certification there, as Heaven's rabbi.
Translation by JewishMOM.com
