FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE: Amb. Yechiel Leiter Writes Powerful Simchas Torah Message From Critically Wounded Son’s Bedside
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, issued an emotional Simchas Torah message Friday from the hospital bedside of his son Neriyah, who remains on life support after suffering a severe brain injury in a terrorist ramming attack last week, thanking Jews around the world for their tefillos while delivering a broader message about terrorism, Jewish survival and the enduring light of Klal Yisroel.
Neriyah, an IDF reservist, was critically wounded on September 23 when a Palestinian terrorist rammed him with a vehicle near the Maccabim checkpoint on Route 443. He was rushed unconscious to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Yerushalayim, where he underwent hours of emergency brain surgery. Doctors succeeded in stabilizing him, but his condition remained extremely serious and his life remained in danger.
More than a week later, Neriyah remains on life support. From beside his son ahead of Simchas Torah, Leiter described the gratitude he and his family feel for the extraordinary outpouring of tefillos and support they have received.
“As I sit here at my son Neriyah’s bedside, I am thinking about what the most appropriate message would be as we enter the Simchat Torah holiday. Neriyah is still on life support and my first thought is one of immense gratitude for the support and all the prayers on his behalf. Your prayers have given my family and me tremendous strength in the knowledge that prayers matter. Prime Minister Netanyahu visited us in the hospital today to share a much-needed sense of comfort and support.”
Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu visited the Leiter family at Shaare Zedek on Friday, continuing his personal contact with the family since the attack. Netanyahu had also visited the hospital shortly after Neriyah was wounded, before departing for the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Leiter then turned from his son’s personal battle for survival to what he described as the ideology behind a series of deadly and attempted terrorist attacks against Israelis, connecting the October 7 massacre with the recent murder of Netanel Shakron, the attack on Neriyah and the attempted downing of a Flydubai passenger jet bound for Tel Aviv.
“My second thought is of the importance of reminding ourselves, and anyone still willing to listen, that the October 7 attack on Simchat Torah three years ago was cultivated in an ideology that believes killing Jews is admirable and that there is no place for an Israel, any Israel. It is the same ideology that murdered Nathaniel Shukrun just before Yom Kippur, tried to murder my second son right after Yom Kippur, and tried to crash a passenger jet on its way to Tel Aviv two days before the anniversary of Israel’s own September 11. Until we defeat this ideology, we are all like Neriyah, on life support.”
Shakron, a father of six from Alei Zahav, was murdered on Erev Yom Kippur when a terrorist opened fire near the Ein Raya spring in the Binyamin region, where Shakron had gone with his teenage son to immerse before Yom Kippur. His son survived the attack.
Leiter’s reference to the passenger jet concerned the attempted attack aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073, the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight on which the co-pilot allegedly attacked and wounded the captain inside the cockpit. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates are investigating whether the incident involved terrorism, advance planning or outside direction.
The ambassador’s third reflection focused on what he described as the often-misunderstood resilience of the Jewish people. He explained that Neriyah’s very name embodies the concept of carrying light forward, tying his son’s name to the Torah’s description of Aharon Hakohen kindling the Menorah.
“And thought #3: People don’t understand Israeli resilience. Neriyah is Hebrew for “G-d’s candle.” We gave him that name because he was born just before the Sabbath when the Biblical portion that begins with Numbers 8:2 is read in synagogues. In the verse, G-d instructs Moses to tell Aharon to set up seven lamps in a way that they face forward and give light in front of the Temple’s golden lamp stand. Aaron’s merit in this task was greater than all the other leaders who participated in the consecration of the holy Temple. Greater why? Because the consecration was a one-time occurrence, while illuminating the Temple, Jerusalem, was a permanent and ongoing duty.”
The imagery of a permanent flame carries particular meaning for the Leiter family, which has already endured the loss of another son in the war that followed October 7.
Neriyah’s older brother, Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidya Leiter, was killed in battle in northern Gaza on November 10, 2023. Moshe, 39, was a company commander in Battalion 697 of the IDF’s 551st Brigade and had previously served in the elite Shaldag unit. A father of six, he had completed medical studies and was preparing to begin hospital training when the war erupted.
After Moshe’s death, Neriyah continued serving extensively in the reserves. Leiter has previously said that his son performed hundreds of days of reserve duty on various fronts following October 7. Family members have described Neriyah as the son who worked to hold everyone together after Moshe was killed.
From his son’s hospital bedside, Leiter invoked Mark Twain’s famous reflections on the extraordinary endurance of the Jewish people through thousands of years of persecution, exile and the rise and fall of civilizations.
“History has proven the light’s eternity. Mark Twain perhaps put it best: “If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvellous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
With Neriyah still fighting for his life as Yom Tov approached, Leiter concluded with a direct plea that the tefillos on his son’s behalf continue — and with the hope that by next Simchas Torah, Neriyah will once again be able to celebrate together with his family.
“Please continue to pray for Neriyah’s recovery, perhaps next Simchas Torah he will be able to rejoice together with his darling wife and children.”
{Matzav.com}
