A few hours before Shabbat on 17 Tevet (Dec. 30th) thousands attended the funeral of Harel Sharvit, HY”D, an IDF officer who was killed in the northern Gaza Strip. Over his grave, through tears, family and friends sang the song "Eretz Hakedosha” (The Holy Land), which Harel sang every chance he had.
“Holy Land, precious and beloved, for Torah you desire“ wrote Rebbe Avraham Salameh. The words of the poem reflected the character of Harel, who so desired the ultimate redemption of Zion. Throughout this euology we intersperse the words of the poem referring to the land of Israel and the Jewish people’s desire to return and see her [the land] rebuilt.
He was energetic and active, though with tremendous sensitivity. His strong beliefs led him to speak out against injustice, even criticizing senior IDF officers above him. At the same time, his caring did not allow him to evict a woman who was several months behind on the rent for a property he had purchased, leading him to even give her money to help her get by.
Senior IDF Brass issue Condemnation
“Defiling the uniform,'" wrote Roi Sharon from the Public Broadcasting Corporation a few weeks earlier about Harel, HY”D, while demanding he be removed from the IDF. Who knows? If Sharon had succeeded maybe Harel would still be with us.
The criticism from Roi Sharon and other senior IDF officers led to a saga referred to as the ‘rebellious reserve soldier.’ It began after Sharvit was photographed planting a tree in the area of what was previously the Jewish community of Dugit in the northern Gaza Strip. Sharvit called to return to Gush Katif, and release Ariel Danino who is imprisoned under administrative detention without trial, and Amiram Ben Uliel, whose innocence Sharvit proclaimed together with the ‘Justice for Amiram’ campaign.
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“Defiling the uniform? Ridiculous. But look at the reactions - everyone is on my side," is what Harel wrote about Roi Sharon’s accusation after I asked him to comment on it. “That’s what he says about an IDF soldier who is risking his life every minute. There are still limits,” he wrote to me in shock. "Don't be upset, G-d is with you," I sent him, trying to provide comfort.
In the end, Sharon and the other reporters said that the IDF decided to condemn the video and reprimand Sharvit. Sharvit told me in response to journalist Yoav Zitun's tweet that he had not received any reprimand. "How is it that the IDF decided to reprimand me and Yoav Zitun knows about but nobody bothered telling me," he asked incredulously. “At the top of the system everything is rotten." He wrote cynically to his friends from high school, "The army was generous enough to allow me to continue risking my life for the sake of the Jewish people. Thanks!” Words that today take seem prophetic.
”A man of truth”
"Why were you dismissed from officer's course?” His father asked by the graveside. “Why? Because you are a man of truth! You didn’t agree with the previous conception that the commanders held to and they didn’t appreciate being told the truth. And still, through tremendous determination, you were invited back to the course and completed officer's training.”
The planting of the tree followed Harel's dismissal from the Binyamin Region where he served at the beginning of the war. After the destruction of the pizzeria in Hawara which advertised using an image of an elderly female hostage, he contacted me at 4 A.M. to get the location of the pizzeria in Silwad that again advertised with an image of one of the hostages. His blood was boiling and he demanded to take the soldiers under him to demolish this second pizzeria too. Since then we had been in touch throughout the war as he repeatedly expressed concern about the army taking too many risks with soldiers’ lives and failing to restore Jewish pride.
When he heard that Major General Fox ordered to only seal the pizzeria rather than demolish it, claiming that there was a shortage of equipment, Harel began exploring the possibility of ordering a civilian bulldozer… That's how he was – never resting for a moment.
During the efforts to seal the pizzeria on Saturday night, a senior officer saw that Sharvit and his soldiers had cocked their weapons towards Arabs who were shooting fireworks at them. The senior officer berated them. A different junior officer might have kept quiet, but not Sharvit, a man of truth who would not stay silent in the face of injustice. He defended his soldiers and their use of their weapons in the given situation. The argument led to his dismissal one week later.
Over the grave at Mount Herzl, his father said he didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. "I said, okay - if they don't want you, then they don't need you.” But Harel refused to give up and moved mountains to join the IDF forces in Gaza. "In this war, we learned that you need to fight in order to fight," his father recounted. "Harel started making phone calls until he reached the Givati Reconnaissance Unit, but that wasn’t good enough for him. I got a call from him, and he told me, 'Dad, it's not enough for me. I'm going to Unit 551.'"
Elazar, his close friend who fought alongside him, eulogized Harel, saying that he told Harel that he himself was injured, and that members of his unit were killed. "Is it really that dangerous?" Harel asked, "Yes," Elazar replied. "Great, then I want to fight alongside you," Harel answered.
Each Stanza Reminds Me Why I Fight
Mount Moriah, site of the holy Temple.
The place of the Divine Presence and the Tabernacle,
Where the Priests served and the showbread stood.
The bronze altar to atone for sins.
Harel was clear on where he was going and what the goal of the fight was. In a recording sent to a friend who was going up to the Temple Mount he said, “You’re going to the Temple Mount, the heart of the battle. We will win here. You are fighting for the Temple Mount, brother. From my perspective, you going up to the Temple Mount is our victory. Share this recording so others hear.”
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"Every house we enter in Gaza, whether a Hamas Brigade Commander, a Deputy Brigade Commander, or an Intelligence Officer, they all have an image of Al-Aqsa, of the abomination. It bothers me and they remind us, really, every house reminds me why I fight and why we are fighting here."
Harel’s commitment encompassed the trilogy of the people of Israel, the land of Israel, and the Torah of Israel.
He went up to the Temple Mount regularly, organized groups to guard the altar of Joshua on Mount Ebal, and was active in the "Justice for Amiram" campaign struggling on behalf of Amiram Ben Uliel's freedom. He had tremendous love for the land of Israel. He loved the stones and the dust on the farm in Emek Tirtza that he built with his brothers in the Jordan Valley.
”There is no comparison to the foreign lands,
Blessed is He who chose this land to give to His people.”
He gave regular shiurim at a Kollel. His friend Elazar recounted that before every entry into Gaza, they would search everywhere for a Mikvah to immerse in. "What a righteous person you were. Before every battle, you would recite the verses, and I would repeat after you – 'I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, I will not turn back until they are vanquished.’”
Harel’s brother David recounted at the funeral that on a Friday afternoon, the tenant of a Kiryat Arba apartment that Harel had purchased was behind on several months of rent and he had no choice but to visit and ask her to leave. "Of course, the tenant did not leave on her own volition, and instead of pursuing the matter through the courts, Harel ended up giving her money,” his brother said. That's how Harel was.
In conversations between us throughout the war, he was not moved by figures like Roi Sharon or others in the media. He believed deeply in the Jewish People and was certain that the nation would ultimately reject the lies of the media and the false beliefs that penetrated government authorities and sometimes even the IDF. "We must win," he repeated, while trying to persuade people to come to Gush Katif. "If it doesn't come from the people, the grassroots, it won't happen," he said to me.
“Hearts will ache, eyes will weep,
Tears will flow as hands wipe them away.
Her desires have been left in destruction
Like a booth in a vineyard, or a hut in a field.”
“We won’t settle for anything less than Redemption”
When his friend Yedidia Eliyahu HY”D fell in battle not far from him, he summarized the situation to me.
"It's insane. So many Jews from Judea and Samaria are dying. Do you see it? There's no time to mourn, no time to process this madness. It's like trying to sip water from an enormous jug. You can't handle it. We must win."
On Thursday, Harel called his father to update him that he was entering Gaza again. Eulogizing him, his father recalled Harel saying, “‘Dad, we're going into Gaza again, this is the last battle.’ Harel’s last words in the conversation were, ‘Goodbye dad– vengeance is coming for them. We’re restoring Israel’s Honor!’”
Knesset member Limor Son Har Melech, who knew Harel from his public activism, eulogized him, as well.
She said, “The pain today is 'as great as the sea' [Eicha 2:13]. Nothing will comfort the Jewish people other than complete Redemption. Nothing. Today, we stand in prayer before our Creator and say, 'Look down from the heavens and see. We will not settle for anything less than complete Redemption. We don't want what was, we don't want any part of the old, we don't want to live in exile and find comfort in it. We want complete Redemption. And that was Harel."
”Lord of the exalted, raise her up from her destruction,
And grant her life anew.”
