Tzipi Schlissel

The person who inspires me the most is not famous, and he never served in a public position.

He was a modest man who was םיִלֵכַּה לֶא אָבְּחֶנ, ”hiding among the baggage”, like Shaul HaMelech. He carried himself like a simple person, but the values he lived by are a beacon for me in everything I do.

My father, Rabbi Shlomo Raanan hy”d, was the grandson of the first chief rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook zt”l. He studied in yeshiva, engaged in Torah research, and was filled with a great love for the Land of Israel and all Jews. When he moved to Chevron, the city of our fathers, he was happy. When people asked him why he chose to live in a dilapidated trailer in Chevron, he would explain that he was living in the place where King David’s palace might have stood before he reigned in Jerusalem!

On the eve of Rosh Chodesh Elul in 1998, a terrorist climbed through the window and brutally murdered my father with a knife in his own home.

The terrorist murdered my father’s body, but not his spirit, for we moved to Chevron and built a community in his memory. The Torah study that is heard every day in the very place where my father was murdered continues his path –the path paved by his grandfather, who saw the redemption in the return of Zion and the return of the people of Israel to their Land.

Rabbi Zvi Engel is Rabbi of Congregation Or Torah in Skokie, Illinois, and First Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America.

Rabbi Bentzi Mann

Afew years ago, a school principal asked me to take part in a mentoring project his school was running. It sounded like a great cause, and soon after, I was paired with an amazing student, Or Chadash Peretz. I very soon realized that Or Chadash – ”Or Cha” – was the son of Major Eliraz Peretz hy”d, who was killed during an army operation in the Gaza Strip. This also meant he was the grandson of Miriam Peretz.

I had the opportunity to meet Miriam at an event a few years later and mentioned my connection to her grandson. Her warmth, appreciation and gratitude blew me away. I experienced first hand the greatness that so many in Israel and around the world have begun to appreciate. It is no wonder that Miriam was awarded the Israel Prize and honored with lighting a torch at Israel’s official Yom HaAtzmaut ceremony.

While her authenticity and charisma are evident, it is Miriam’s life story of resilience and hope in the face of tragedy that make her such an inspiration. Her childhood was not easy – after making Aliyah with parents who could neither read nor write, she grew up in immigrant absorption camps – but nothing could have prepared her for the tragedies to follow. After losing her husband and two of her sons, she had every reason to give up on her faith. Instead, she chose to become a source of inspiration to all of Israel. May Hashem continue to give her strength!