Chief Rabbi of Israel shares memory of Yehuda Katz

More than four decades have passed since IDF soldier Yehuda Katz (may God avenge his blood) fell, until his body was returned to Israel and he was brought to a Jewish burial. This week, during a shiva visit at the family's home, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Kalman Meir Bar, returned to the days when the two sat together in the Beit Midrash – and shared a memory that has been etched in him ever since.

Rabbi Bar, who studied in a chavruta with Yehuda at the Kerem B'Yavneh Yeshiva, told of the moment when it was time for the yeshiva students to be drafted into the IDF. The buses were already waiting at the gate to take the boys to the base, and Yehuda went into the restroom for a moment.

However, upon exiting, he did not continue to the bus.

Yehuda turned around, returned to the yeshiva, entered the Beit Midrash, stayed there for a moment – and only then left the yeshiva again and boarded the transport waiting outside. When his friends wondered why he had made the trip back, his answer was simple – but became a sentence that has accompanied his memory decades later:

"You don't go to the army from the restroom – you go to the army from the Beit Midrash."

According to the Chief Rabbi, this was not a random gesture. That same connection between Torah and military mission characterized Yehuda later on as well. When the boys arrived at the soldiers' assembly point before leaving for the mission, it was Yehuda who led his friends. He led the circles of dancing and joy before the departure, while the seriousness and discipline that characterized him in the Beit Midrash were also expressed in uniform.

Rabbi Bar said that Yehuda was so immersed in Torah study that he used to sit with his face to the wall so as not to allow what was happening around him to distract him. That same trait, he said, accompanied him even when he left the yeshiva benches and went to serve in the IDF.

"True redemption does not leave anyone behind"

During the shiva visit, Rabbi Bar also addressed the deep meaning of returning Yehuda's body home after more than 40 years. The Rabbi returned to the Exodus from Egypt and Moses, who, when the entire people of Israel went from slavery to freedom, did not forget the bones of Joseph:

"True redemption cannot exist when something is left behind. 'And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him' – with him, so that he would be an example for all of us."

More than four decades after Yehuda set out on his path and did not return, the circle was closed and he was brought to his final rest in the land he set out to defend. "Yehuda serves as an example and a model for the path of a 'ben aliya' (one who ascends in Torah)," the Chief Rabbi concluded.