Stern, Raphael-Elchanan

Rafael (Rafi), son of Elisheva and Yosef, was born on August 30, 1947 in Tel Aviv. He completed six years of schooling at the Yavneh Elementary School in Haifa, and then continued his elementary studies at the Carmel School. He began his high school studies at the “Noam” youth academy in Pardes Hannah, but when his interest in real subjects increased, he moved to the Yavneh religious high school in Haifa and completed his studies there. He was a member of the Bnei Akiva religious youth movement and served as a guide and center of branches and seminars. Rafi was drafted into the IDF in late September 1965 and assigned to the Nahal Brigade. After training, he spent several months in the 12th grade and when the Six Day War broke out, he participated in the battles for Nablus and the conquest of the Golan Heights, and after the war he wanted to take a parachute course and at first encountered difficulties. The IDF. He was a good soldier, devoted and loyal to his job. He had always done his job efficiently and with talent. He was loved by his commanders and friends for his good character, integrity, and decency. At the end of September 1968, Rafi was released from regular service and accepted to study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After completing a year in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, he made the decision that he must first build and strengthen faith, Torah, and mitzvot. So he stopped his studies at the university for one year and went to study at the Merkaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem. Within a few days he realized that one year would not be enough, and two months later he decided that the Torah would be his way to the future. He dealt with the study of the Torah thoroughly and with perseverance and was meticulous in all matters. He studied and recited the comments of the commentators, agreed to himself and then discussed and discussed his views with friends and rabbis. He was interested in all aspects of thought and action, as he used to say: “The whole world was created by God, and therefore all that is done in it must concern us.” He married a wife and said to build a house in Jerusalem. He was especially interested in the need to go out to the youth, not only to the religious youth, but also to the secular youth, who must be educated And to impart to him ideals and values, to reveal to him that holiness and sand are intertwined and that everything (ie the sciences, the state, and the army) is all! Indeed, while he was studying in the yeshiva, he took his first steps as a teacher in a school, to fulfill in his own words in our daily prayers: “He is a teacher of Torah, “When the Yom Kippur War broke out, he went with his unit to the Golan Heights, passed all the horrors of the war and participated in all the terrible battles on Mount Hermon against the Syrian commando. The front line in an enclave in Syria. On the morning of 10 February 1974, during a morning patrol in the Tel Antar area, his half-track mounted on a mine and he was killed. He was brought to eternal rest in the cemetery on Mount Herzl. Survived by his parents, a widow and a daughter, who was born only two months before his fall, and two brothers and a sister. After his fall, he was awarded the rank of sergeant and he was ordained a rabbi, on behalf of the yeshiva.