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Shnold, Meir Halevi

Shnold, Meir Halevi


Son of Nehama and Moshe. He was born on December 13, 1974 in Safed, the brother of Leah Malka, Eliezer Chaim and Avraham. His parents, Holocaust survivors, were involved in education. Meir was named after his grandfather, who was a great Torah scholar and educator. The inheritance of the name was also accompanied by many of the grandfather’s virtues. Meir was born as the youngest son of his parents and won the full love and attention of the entire family. Instead of a regular kindergarten, Meir was sent to a traditional “cheder” and when he reached first grade he could read fluently. At a young age, Meir was found to have excellent musical hearing, and from the first grade he learned to play the violin. He attended the Matan camps for young talents in the arts, and was awarded a scholarship for his music, where he studied at the Birv State Religious School in Safed, and Meir eagerly awaited the fourth grade so that he could join the Bnei Akiva branch. In junior high school, Meir studied at the religious elementary school in Safed, where he was very interested in the various subjects and excelled at them all. In the history of his hometown of Safed, he presented his achievements in sacred studies with his Bar Mitzvah sermon, which he wrote alone Bar-Yerushalayim, to study at the “Bnei Akiva” yeshiva in Nativ Meir, and was accepted to the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem. Despite an exhausting learning system at the high school yeshiva, Meir managed to combine the two. He continued his studies in the beit midrash and high school and also found time and place to train and fulfill his obligations to the conservatory. From age of sixteen, after learning about Hasidic music, he began to participate in festivals of the Klezmer in Safed and in the orchestras of the institutions where he studied. After graduating from high school in 1992, Meir chose to join the military course in the hesder yeshiva. In his search for a yeshiva that suited him, he arrived in Kiryat Shmona, and in the first acquaintance he became acquainted with the spirit of his rabbi and chose to establish his place of study in the city. At the yeshiva in Kiryat Shmona, Meir reached to the height of his blossoming, for his enthusiasm for Gemara studies, he wrote: “Night in the beit midrash … I sit and stare through the pages of the Gemara … and I take upon myself again and again to learn better in the future. But the next night I sit with myself and the letters hovering in front of me remind me of A Kabbalistic drawing about the creation of the world and the letters of the alphabet in which I exist, and I think about the Torah of life and about the eternal life that we planted in our midst … and I am enchanted, fascinated by my world, and enchanted … ” And the ethics he acquired for his expanding library alongside contemporary Hebrew literature. They also discussed his qualifications and assigned him various positions. Thus, for example, the young man was chosen for the number of young men, and he wrote a book of regulations for the head of the yeshiva. Meir initiated activities with secular youth – he organized visits to adopt youth in the Upper Galilee, sat in the moshavim on Shabbat and prepared kibbutz children for the bar mitzvah. Since his childhood, his fertile imagination has led him to creative writing, but most of his literary activity has matured within the yeshiva. Other horizons for the creative creativity he found in photography – Meir was a photography enthusiast, and documented on his camera landscapes and events – and of course, playing violin. Once a week he would go up from Kiryat Shmona to Jerusalem, continue his studies in classical music, with his former teacher at the conservatory. During his vacations, Meir returned to his parents’ home in Safed. Ben Masur was the one who helped throughout his stay in the house, and during his free time arranged the volumes of his writings and photographs. At the beginning of March 1994, Meir was drafted into the IDF, and he wanted to serve with his comradesThe Golani service. He was disappointed to discover that he had been assigned to the Givati ​​Brigade, but from the moment he reached the training base and became acquainted with the staff, his feeling changed radically. He became an avowed “purple” and testified that he “enjoyed every minute” despite exhausting training. Meir became a leader among his fellow members of the unit and served as an advisor to the faculty regarding the special problems of the yeshiva students. A third of the unit described his activities in the battalion: “A model soldier, from above, believing in the justice of the way, with a high personal level, it is difficult to detail all his qualities as a person … It was a pleasure to consult with him and receive his advice. “Meir passed through the stages of the route, from recruitment through basic training, service in Lebanon, to service in Kfar Darom. He passed the officers ‘examinations successfully, and the date for his departure for the officers’ course was determined. On 9 April 1995, Meir was killed in the explosion of a car bomb near the village of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip, which killed six other soldiers and one civilian. In the military cemetery in Safed, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant. Survived by his parents, two brothers and a sister. After his death, his parents discovered his varied literary heritage. There were activities for Bnei Akiva, sermons, articles, polemics for the press, reporters, children’s stories, and even exciting lyric poems. The songs were collected and published in the book “Landscapes of Paradise”. In the preface to the book, his family wrote: “For the reader of the poems, we have more astonishment than the poetry of his life for himself, in which the song of his death was about himself.” These poems constitute a window for a sensitive soul and crystallize through a radiant window of searching and wondering. Yearning for the meaning of the request for pure truth and for not accepting the injustice … “. A poem that was written in January 1993 reflects the same ability to have an inner, poetic and sensitive observation: “To go to myself, to my essence, to seek meanings, to seek opportunities for expression, to create, to give freedom to my thoughts, to horizons disappear beyond the morning mist, as the sun shines in my soul against the dawn of dawn In the spiritual darkness to enlighten Uri to spread Torah “… In addition to this book, his family commemorated his memory in various publications, including the newsletter of the “Me’orot Amana Yeshivah”, a weekly activity page for Memorial Day, a summary booklet for the educational program, And the “Young Klezmer” competition held every year in Safed. “The IDF in 1991”, when he was about sixteen years old. This letter was read as his will in the days of the shiva, and was also distributed as educational material in educational institutions. From the letter: “Every human being is a world unto themselves and there are human beings whose uniqueness will be carried with them to the world to come. There are those who die before their time and then we remember just how unique they were. For in their death they show us how to be. We have gone through wars and people died, those whom God wants next to him. For our world is too small for them and they need a Divine closeness in the world of souls. “

The following people have requested to be notified whenever this hero is honored

  • Name: לאה
    Relationship: mother

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