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Sivan Rahav-Meir, The Daily Portion / A Story I heard from Roni Daniel, z"l

By Sivan Rahav-Meir/Translation by Yehoshua Siskin

Posted on 07/27/21

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
(410) 788-6633

On a Zoom session that was held by the Israeli News Network prior to Rosh HaShanah, Roni Daniel told a story. I did not really hear what he was saying while he raised a toast, yet I felt that he had told a gem. Therefore, I called him the next day and he happily repeated and expanded upon his words from the previous evening. Roni, the veteran military affairs commentator, known for his caring nature, suddenly passed away yesterday from cardiac arrest at the age of 73.  
I found the words I had typed during our telephone conversation. They are dedicated to his memory and to the elevation of his soul on high:

"When I was 12 years old, Haim Gouri wrote for the newspaper 'LaMerhav'. He had a weekly column on Fridays whose headline was 'Ma Omrim?' (What do you say?). He once published a short story that so impressed me and touched my heart that I cut it out and pasted it into a notebook. I have remembered it ever since.

In a certain town a man was sentenced to death. All the people of the town thought this was an incredibly unjust verdict and protested against the execution. They demonstrated one day, two days, and then three, but it did not help. Finally, a prison guard stopped a man who was demonstrating and said to him: 'Why are you still demonstrating? They already executed him, you can no longer change anything.' The man said to the guard: 'I do not want to change anything, I am doing this in order not to become bad myself.' This story - especially the last sentence - made such a deep impression on me when I was a boy. I even spoke about it once with with Haim Gouri himself, but he was already an old man and did not exactly remember it.  But I remembered it, and still do."