Bris Celebrated for the Son of Elisha Yonatan Lober, Hy”d, Who Fell in Gaza

By Hamodia Staff

It was the celebration of a baby boy entering the bond of bris milah, yet it was shaded by the agony of the loss of his father.

Elisha Yonatan Lober, Hy”d, who was serving in the reserves in Battalion 8104 of Brigade 197, fell in Gaza at the end of December. At the time, he left his ten-month-old son Nachman, and his wife Aviya (née Greiner) who was expecting their second child in just two months time.

The family had suffered the recent tragic loss of Elisha Yonatan’s cousins, Hillel Menachem and Ya’acov Yaniv Yagel, who were murdered in a terrorist attack in Huwara on February 26, 2023.

While bystanders expressed their feelings that corresponding to the joy, there is a hole which cannot be filled, Hagai Lober, the father of Elisha Yonatan, expressed his personal feelings otherwise.

“I never thought that the pain would dissipate,” he said. “Torrents of tears have been cried, but now the wells of tears have dried up. While we thought that there was a hole which could not be filled, feelings of joy and happiness, and no feelings of pain, filled us when saw the baby. He is a tremendous consolation, a feeling that something was completed. Our consolation is your consolation, our luck is your luck.

Speaking to the nation, the grandfather said that his son went to battle for the sake of the hostages taken by Hamas during the massacre on Simchas Torah.

“We are devoting all the prayers from this bris, all the tefilos by the Kotel and Makom Hamikdash, for the benefit of the hostages,” he said. “We salute the families of the hostages for your fortitude and your strength. When Yonatan went to battle, he went to battle for them. To eradicate this evil of the Hamas terrorist organization, and to return the hostages.

“In the very near future, the entire nation will see tremendous joy, and unity unprecedented from the day the country was established until this very day.

The baby boy was given the name Amatzya. As the Rav reach the conclusion of the tefillah recited when naming the baby, a tearful wail erupted from those gathered as they called out in unison, “bedamayich chayi.”

May the Almighty call a swift end to our troubles.