Yeshiva Slaughter
Thursday evening, March 6, 2008, Ala Abu Dhaim, 25, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, entered the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, found the library crowded with students studying Torah, and pulled out his Kalatchnikov AK-47 from a bag he was carrying. He fired his automatic weapon killing eight students and wounding nine others. Students scrambled under desks and jumped out the second floor window to get out of the range of the weapon fire. Yehuda Meshi Zahav, the head of the Zaka emergency service described the scene after the shooting as "like a slaughterhouse; the floor was covered in blood"
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The families of the slain students, their friends and friends of the yeshiva came to the yeshiva for the mass funeral. Rabbi Ya'acov Shapira, head of the yeshiva, eulogized the dead students. He said, These priceless students were the best of the best, pure gold. Each one of them had unique and different good values in Torah studies, at work, in charity and kindness. |
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Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, head of the Merkaz high school, eulogized after Rabbi Shapira. In a voice breaking with emotion and tears, he said, G-d is just, and His ways are just... We have questions; but the questions are so difficult, so difficult... How is it possible to eulogize one Torah scholar on Rosh Chodesh Adar? But two? and three, and four, and five...?? Your ways are so hidden, Master of the Universe! ... In Adar, we increase joy - look how much joy You gathered to Heaven! They were in the midst of studying Torah, such joy, such purity... We have been left with such a hole... I just want to tell You, Master of the Universe, what great people You took: Yehonadav - he gave [nadav, in Hebrew] so much; what purity and simplicity... You took Yochai from us - he lives [chai] in G-d, what Torah study he did; even while they were setting up for the Purim party, he came to learn Torah... You took Segev Pniel of the Avichayil family - what a family, and what valour [chayil] in Torah! ... You took Yehonatan [meaning "G-d gave"] - what prayer, what Torah, what beauty... You took our dear Avraham David - just two days ago I had a long talk with him in his room - what knowledge he had, what integrity, what music he gave us with his Torah reading... and the youngest, Neriah - the candle of G-d, his light will be missing from us...Following the concluding eulogy by Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky, the eight families of mourners tore their shirts and recited aloud the Kaddish prayer. |
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Palestinians cheered over the slaughter of the young students. Thousands took to the streets of cities in Gaza to celebrate. Hamas activists gave out candies and cakes to anyone who passed by. In Gaza City, Hamas militants fired their guns joyously in the air.
The celebration is another instance of the barbaric nature of the culture of the Palestinians: Evidently they regarded the delibrate terror shooting and killing of innocent civilians as their political and military victory.
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We now explore the related Torah codes. We have three ways of describing the Yeshiva: Mercaz Harav, Mercaz Yeshiva or for short Mercaz. The event involving the yeshiva can be described as a slaughter attack. So we have for the key word description of the event Mercaz Harav Slaughter Attack, Mercaz Yeshiva Slaughter Attack, or Mercaz Slaughter Attack. Only the first combination of key words produced a statistically signicant table. With expected number of ELSs set to 10, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce a table as compact as that produced by the Torah text is 13.5/1,000.
The date the event happened was the evening of March 6, 2008. As it was in the evening of March 6,, the Jewish date is the 30th of the month Adar I. There are three common ways of writing this date: Adar I 30, 30th of Adar I or on the 30th of Adar I. We have three ways of describing the Yeshiva: Mercaz Harav, Mercaz Yeshiva or for short Mercaz. One of the nine possibilities yields a statistically significant table. With the number of ELSs set to 10, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce a table as compact as that produced by the Torah text is 2/1,000.
The Jewish year corresponding to the evening of March 6, 2008 is 5768. There are three ways of writing 5768: 5768, in 5768 or for short (5)768. As before, there are three was of describing the yeshiva. One of the nine possibilities yields a statistically significant table. With the number of ELSs set to 20, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce a table as compact as that produced by the Torah text is 7/1,000.
For the combined experiments there were nine combinations. Using our standard methodology for combining results on a trial by trial basis, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce as combined compact result as that produced by the Torah text is 14/1,000.
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Directly responsible for the slaughter is the Palestinian Abu Dhaim. We pair the three appellations we have used for the name of the yeshiva with A. Dhaim and Dhaim. One of the six posibilities produced a statistically significant table. With expected number of ELSs set to 10, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce as compact a table as that produced by the Torah text is 5.5/1,000. |
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For the combined experiments there were six combinations. Using our standard methodology for combining results on a trial by trial basis, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce as combined compact result as that produced by the Torah text is 27.5/1,000.
Finally, there is the question of what organization is responsible for the slaughter. Abu Dhaim was undoubtedly not acting as a loner. He was acting as part of some organization. The two organizations that one immediately thinks of is Hamas and Fatah. At this time it is not actualy known which one. However, as reported in the Jerusalem Post on March 10, 2008, Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, on Sunday March 9, 2008 issued a stated in Ramallah calling the attack on the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva an heroic operation. As part of the so-called peace process, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades was supposed dismantled, but evidently it still exists. Also on March 8, 2008, the Palestinian Authority Daily newspaper, the official newspaper of the PLO, put a picture of Abu Dhaim on its front page with a caption: Shahid Holy Islamic Martyr. The official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida prominently placed a picture of the killer on its front page, with the caption, The Shahid Alaa Abu Dhaim.. In a Page One article on the terror killings, his act is again defined as a Shahada achieving action. Clearly, the Palestinian culture and its political arm the Palestinian Authority is sending its people a straightforward message of valueing any murderer who by terror murders Jews.
There is a table with a close meeting between Mercaz Yeshiva and Fatah. With expected number of ELSs set to 20, the probability that a text would have as compact a table as the Torah text is 54.5/1,000.
