"The trees are so heavy, the fruit bends the branches; this is the hour when children fall asleep. The lamb will return to its mother's embrace, lie down in the pen and fall asleep, and the sheep will kiss him, and she will call him by name."
An entire country and a whole nation are now in a time of mourning and lamentation, pain and weeping. A time when two tender lambs – golden infants – finally return, in their mother's embrace, to us, to their home. And all of us, an entire nation with a broken heart, accompany them to their eternal rest.
Master of the universe, this is not how we prayed they would return to us. This is not the moment we waited for, nor the ending we hoped for. In our mind's eye, we saw them returning, their golden heads shining, with that lively, mischievous look gleaming in their small eyes. And mother Shiri, in her breathtaking courage, still sheltering them under her wings, protecting them from all harm; exactly as she did when facing Satan, whom they encountered at such a tender age.
The image of Shiri, carrying her two golden children with eyes torn open from terror, forging a path for them between rifle butts and human monsters – will remain seared in us forever. This image contains within it simultaneously the purest light, the most noble and pure love; and, incomprehensibly, the most horrifying, distilled evil. This image is a single moment in time that encapsulates the entire story of the October 7 disaster – Simchat Torah. The essence of goodness against the lust for murder. And how great is our heartbreak.
The lullaby we carry in our hearts today is an eternal lullaby. As sweet, beloved Kfir and Ariel are brought to an Israeli grave, to eternal rest, together with their remarkable mother Shiri.
If there is still mercy in the world, may the beautiful faces of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir become a heart-piercing cry, echoing in all corners of the earth. A weeping that travels from one end of the world to the other, awakening the hearts of people whose senses have dulled, whose sense of justice has been distorted, whose hearts have been sealed. Look, world – today we are burying the sweetest and purest of your children. Open your heart, world, join the great cry that an entire broken nation is shouting today.
Beloved Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel. Know that from the day you were torn from us, we did not cease for even a moment to pray and hope, to wait, to cry, to yearn for you to return to us alive. That together with brave, heroic father Yarden, who recently returned to us from the valley of the shadow of death, all of you would return to your warm and beautiful home. And now, there are no words with the power to heal the heart. And we refuse to be consoled.
Beloved Yarden, and all the Bibas, Silverman, and Siton families – we all cry with you, embrace you, are broken with you. As president of the State of Israel, in the name of the State of Israel, I ask your forgiveness. Forgiveness that we did not fulfill our duty. Forgiveness that we did not protect your loved ones on that cursed day. Forgiveness that we did not save them, that we did not bring them home safely.
In this moment of heartbreak, I wish to quote the words of Ohad Ben Ami, who returned to us from the horror of captivity and told me this: "The moment we knew they were fighting for us and wanted us to return, it gave us all the strength and reinforced us... There were six of us in six square meters. We were together, secular and religious, soldiers and civilians. We lived in conditions that were not conditions, 30 meters underground, and we were together. This is what we are built on."
Words about unity don't always manage to enter our hearts. But to hear Ohad, who returned from an inconceivable hell, speak about our unity as a life-saving force – this is no longer a slogan, it is a commandment with sacred and binding validity for all of us. The living, beating, magnificent heart of our nation, which was revealed to us this year in all its glory, contains many voices; and now all of us, all parts of this nation, must look directly at the image of Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel, and swear to hold on tightly, together.
Thus – together – as a whole nation with a broken heart, we will accompany Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri to eternal rest today, and may we tear open the gates of heaven in prayer: that their beloved, pure, and innocent souls be bound in the bond of life forever; and that we merit the swift return of all the hostages, to the very last one.
