WATCH: 'We wanted to ignite the light of joy,' says terror victim's daughter on wedding day
Rabbi Ya’akov Litman, 40, and his son Netanel, 18, were shot to death outside Otniel south of Hebron on November 13, as they traveled down route 60.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFUpdated: NOVEMBER 27, 2015 00:36Litman and Biegel family wedding
Before his death in a terrorist attack two weeks ago, Rabbi Ya’akov Litman wrote out the blessing he intended to say at his daughter Sarah-Tehiya’s upcoming wedding.On Thursday night the wedding’s officiating rabbi, Rabbi Ya’akov Shapira, dean of Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, read out the blessing as Sarah-Tehiya, 21, and her groom, Ariel Beigel, stood under the white wedding canopy at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, in an event that was streamed live and to which a public invitation was issued.“At this moment of holiness we want to remember the family members who cannot be here with us to share this celebration,” he had written in reference to grandparents who had died. “We are certain that they are sharing in our happiness.”Shapira said that under “this canopy is a cry from the depth of the heart and with full faith: Ya’akov is not dead, he lives [in his children].”He added that he is certain that Ya’akov, 40, and Sarah-Tehiya’s younger brother, Netanel, 18, who was also killed in the attack, were watching their wedding from heaven.Ya’akov and Netanel were murdered by a Palestinian gunman on November 13 as they drove with the rest of Sarah-Tehiya’s family, her mother and four siblings, to spend the last Shabbat before her wedding with the Beigel family.Already during the shiva, Sarah-Tehiya and Ariel had announced that they would hold the wedding after the mourning period ended and would invite everyone to attend.“Until two weeks ago, people did not know me and Ariel, and they were not interested in us,” Sarah-Tehiya wrote before her weeding.“Then one minute on Friday – in the height of the preparations – my father and brother were murdered by a ruthless terrorist.“A moment does not go by when I do not miss Natanel’s smile and my father’s humility and modesty. It will always accompany me.
“But it is precisely out of this pain, in the heroic month before Hanukka, together with all of Israel with will ignite an huge light of joy, giving and love that the people of Israel has bestowed upon us. The main thing is not to be afraid.”Under the huppa Ariel broke into tears before he broke the wedding glass and said the traditional verse from Psalms, “If I forsake thee O’ Jerusalem.”Before the wedding his friends surprised the couple with a new car.The guests, which numbered over a thousand, included Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau, Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Rabbi Chaim Druckman, and former Hebron chief rabbi Dov Lior, as well as people who had com from abroad. As the prime minister’s wife, Sarah Netanyahu, arrived to give her support, popular hassidic singer Avraham Fried made a surprise appearance and performed joyful wedding songs.