Dvir Aminolav was the first Israeli soldier killed in the 2008 Gaza War. His mother Dalya missed Dvir, terribly. One night before she went to bed, she said in a loud voice: “G-d, give me a sign, give me a hug from Dvir so that I will know that his death had some meaning.”
That week her daughter asked her to accompany her to a musical performance at The International Crafts Festival in Jerusalem. Dalya, feeling quite depressed, did not want to go to the concert, but she didn’t want to disappoint her daughter either, and agreed to go halfheartedly. The concert was a bit delayed. A two-year-old boy began wandering through the stands. He walked up to Dalya’s seat and touched her on the shoulder. A preschool teacher, Dalya turned around, saw the boy and smiled warmly.
“What’s your name?” Dalya asked.
“Eshel,” the boy replied.
“That’s a nice name. Do you want to be my friend, Eshel?” The boy nodded in reply and sat down next to Dalya.
Eshel’s parents were sitting two rows above. Concerned their little boy was bothering Dalya, they asked him to come back up. But Dalya insisted that everything was fine.
“I have a brother named Dvir,” two-year-old Eshel chimed in, as only little children can. Dalya was shocked to hear the unusual name of her beloved son, and walked up the two rows to where Eshel’s parents were sitting. She saw a baby in his carriage, and apologizing, she asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, how old is your baby and when was he born?”
The baby’s mother replied, “He was born right after the war in Gaza.”
Dalya swallowed hard. “Please tell me, why did you choose to name him Dvir?”
Baby Dvir’s mother began to explain. “When I was at the end of my pregnancy, the doctors suspected the fetus may have a very serious birth defect. Since it was the end of the pregnancy, there was little the doctors could do and I just had to wait and see how things would turn out.
When I went home that night, the news reported that the first casualty in the war was a soldier named Dvir. I was so saddened by this news that I decided to make a deal with G-d. ‘If you give me a healthy son,’ I said in my prayer, ‘I promise to name him Dvir, in memory of the soldier that was killed.'”
Dalya, the mother of Dvir, stood with her mouth open. She tried to speak but she couldn’t. After a long silence, she said quietly, “I am Dvir’s mother.”
The young parents didn’t believe her. She repeated, “Yes, it’s true. I am Dvir’s mother. My name is Dalya Aminalov, from Pisgat Zeev.”
With a sudden inspiration, Baby Dvir’s mother handed Dalya the baby and said, “Dvir wants to give you a hug.”
Dalya held the little baby boy in her arms and looked into his angelic face. The emotion she felt at that moment was overwhelming. She had asked for a hug from Dvir – and she could truly feel his warm and loving embrace from the World of Truth.
(©2013. Printed with permission from Rabbi Baruch Lederman, author of Shulweek www.kehillastorah.org.)
Photo by ketan rajput on Unsplash