It is a name that until a few days ago held no meaning to me. He was a complete stranger, about whom I had never heard and whom I had never met.
Yet an image of the last seconds of his life won't leave my mind.
Roi was a son. He was a brother. He was a husband to Sara and a father to three-year-old Gilad and one-year-old Yoav.
The Face of a Hero
Roi Klein.
It is a name that until a few days ago held no meaning to me. He was a complete stranger, about whom I had never heard and whom I had never met.
Yet an image of the last seconds of his life won’t leave my mind.
Roi was a son. He was a brother. He was a husband to Sara and a father to three-year-old Gilad and one-year-old Yoav.
But most of all, Roi was a hero for all of us. He was a face and a name to the many Jewish heroes spanning the generations.
Roi’s funeral was last Thursday (July 27), the day that would have been his 31st birthday.
Major Roi Klein was a Golani brigade deputy commander. He was killed last Wednesday, in an ambush among the houses of Bint Jbail, a large village in southern Lebanon. Hezbullah terrorists killed eight soldiers, including Roi, and injured nearly two dozen.
There were two other soldiers next to Roi. A hand grenade was thrown at them and Roi shouted, “Grenade!” He then threw his body over it, sacrificing his life for the sake of his soldiers, who later attributed being alive to his act of selflessness.
In his last seconds of life, Roi mustered the strength to shout “Shema Yisroel” the prayer that Jews have prayed for centuries, declaring our belief in G-d and in a better world; the prayer that so many Jewish martyrs throughout the generations called out as they were being led to their deaths.
My mind can’t stop conjuring what it must have been like in those last seconds of his life, when Roi made the split-second decision to jump on the grenade. I imagine Roi seeing his beloved family in his mind’s eye–his wife, and their two young children who would now grow up knowing him only from stories that they’d be told or from pictures that they’d be shown.
I imagine Roi thinking about his grieving elderly parents; of his mother, Shoshana whose voice cracked at her son’s grave as she cried out, “The pain is unbearable… We will look after the children and raise them according to what you left behind…”
And I imagine Roi seeing the West Bank hilltop settlement of Eli that he and his wife idealistically made their home, despite those who wished to dismantle it.
It was for these loved one that Roi served in the special units of the Paratroop and Golani brigades. It was for them, and for the ideals represented by the Shema Yisroel prayer, that Roi diligently and courageously pursued his army service, advancing to the point where he would have been promoted to battalion commander.
What a colossal contrast between Roi and his enemy.
Roi was there to ensure a peaceful existence of his people in their homeland. He was there to safeguard the innocent lives of his children and his nation. To ensure that people could live in their homes in peace and tranquility. To guarantee that they could continue their ordinary day to day activities. Activities like shopping in a mall without being blown to bits, like eating a family meal together in a pizza shop without worrying about flying shrapnel, like praying in a synagogue without having to run for cover in a bomb shelter, or like sending their children on a school bus without thoughts of bullets penetrating within.
Roi was there to defend his people against those that vowed their destruction. Even in his death, he sacrificed his own life to ensure that two of his comrades could live.
I picture his enemy, too, in my mind. He is there to cause as much death, devastation and destruction as he possibly can. He is eager to send his young, strapped with explosive bombs and stuffed with nails on missions of “suicide bombings,” as long as in their death they murder as many Jews as possible with them. He is launching rocket after rocket into densely populated Jewish cities so that hospitals healing the sick and homes housing the elderly will be destroyed together with the lives of those inside.
Roi’s enemy was willing to die to bring death and mourning to as many as possible; Roi was willing to die to ensure life and liberty for others, to preserve a world in which Jews could pray to G-d in their synagogues, perform G-d’s commandments and make our world a better, more moral and more conscientious place.
This is the third time in this last century that the Jewish people have found themselves on the front lines against those who sought their annihilation.
For the Nazis, the Jew was a racial impurity to be exterminated like insects. For the Soviet communists, the Jewish religion was a thorn in their sides to be eradicated. And for the Islamic extremists, the Jew and his state must be eliminated from the face of the earth.
Less than a century has passed since Jews fell in the Soviet gulag with the chant of Shema in their mouths for the mere “crime” of observing Kosher or Shabbat in their private lives. Just over a half a century has passed the echo of the Shema resonated in the Nazi gas chambers where Jews were suffocated and then burnt to ashes in the crematoriums just because they were born as Jews.
And now Roi Klein followed in the path of these martyrs, dying with the cry of Shema on his lips in the act of defending his people from those who, yet again, wish to destroy them.
Roi is no stranger after all. He is each of our husbands, sons and brothers. His face is the face of each of our heroes and martyrs.
wow
wow.. jumping on a grenade to save other instead of trying to save his own skin…he must have been an amazing man…not many of us regular are like that .. im sure hes going strait to gan eden… in the zchus of such ppl moshiach will come………
HJF London
A beautifully written piece
Roi actions are an inspiration to us all
Our thoughts and hearts are with his grieving family
shmuel munkes
this is a truly beutiful story i cant controll myself from crying as i scroll down the article,the bitter truth hits home to fight terror people actually pay with thear life.
Peace after victory
Too bad the Israeli politicians do not have the same mesorus nefesh as the soilders they send to fight. What a pity that this so called "cease fire" potentially makes all of the soilders death retroactively pointless.
Moshiach now!
A girl in ch
for some reason as i read this letter, i am not surprised. emotional, sad, touched? yes.
all the soldiers and civilians who have fallen in the past month of horror, are a ‘Roi’ too. they each had a family whom they adored and a life which they loved, yet they died in the place of someone else. The soldiers died to protect us, and the civilians died instead of us, civilians.
we are enternally indebted to these people, because they gave us their gift of life.
thank you
vivi
wow! such an amaizing man!
cant believe it!
all the effort he put in to it!!!!!!!!!!
Response to Peace After Victory
With all due respect, your pity for a so called "cease fire" might be valid, but a soldiers death can never be called pointless. You should try and choose your words a little more cautiously.
Roi demonstrated herosim in protecting the sacred land! He will forever be a hero until true peace is accomplished with the coming of Moshiach.
That is without any regard to the political blunders that continue to plague the Israeli Government. No matter how grave the mistake of a cease fire, ROI and the other soldiers sacrifices will stand at the forefront of respect and honor.
Ad Mosai - Moshiach NOW !
I second the motion of ALL of the above but after my weep I just have to add that there is a VERY LOT of Jewish blood on most of the Israeli politicians and especially those of Sharon and Olmert
chaya
i cannot keep the tears from rolling down my face. my g-d save us and we should never have to write soemhtign like this again!!!!!!!
a buchor from tucson
WoW….wow wow wow, i can not help my self but cry from reading this story. Roi was truly an amazing man. If there where more people like this moshaich would of already been here! This man is surely going strait to gan eiden. AD MOSAI!
Sara
Such a sad and beatuiful story (is it possible to feel them both at once?) This is a real hero. This neshomo is going to have a special place near the kisei hakovod in shamayim. Ad Mosai?!
Peace after victory
To my responder: Yes, every life is meaningful and so is a persons death. Obviously, I am not trying to demean the death of this soilder or any person. However, al pi teva, there was no point to the actions of the Israeli governments and is naive to suggest that a lot of Jewish blood was not spilled senselessly.
You are right, obviously, that these soilders actions were honorable and unbelievable. I said as much stating their meserus nefesh. Still, to heal the world we need to asess it honestly.
Major: Fan o- klein
People, don’t doubt if u would do the same, i think u would.
in fact i know u would.
does this thought take away any bit of his title "hero" ? not at all! G-d gave him the chance & the honor to leave this world on such a good note, so to speak. He was given the chance to go straight to Gan eden, and he took it! G-d chose him…He’s my man…he’s my hero.
naomi shapiro
Absolutely amazing. I was also brought to tears while reading this piece. Roi’s neshama is definitely resting in shamayim now. His wife and children should know of no more sorrows. Mashiach now!!!
rewnewal@bigpong.au
this is true courage ans selflessness
moshiach now
touched and sad
wow im soooo touched and emotional. let his wife and kids know one thing, their daddy is in a very special place with hashem watchiong over them…their daddy was such a special man that hashem wanted him right next to him. incredible man, what a beautiful face…u can see his chesed on his "full of life" face. ad mossai.
vB
After Roi gave up his life for Israel, Olmert is kicking his family out of ther homes (they live in Judea or Samaria)