About three months before the first anniversary of the deadly shooting at Jerusalem’s Ramot Junction, students at the Hadvat HaTorah yeshiva have launched a memorial initiative for Rabbi Yaakov Pinto, who was killed in the attack at age 25. The students, together with the yeshiva’s preparatory program, have committed to completing an entire Shas Mishnayot and writing Torah essays that will later be compiled into a book for the elevation of his soul.
The project is scheduled to be completed by the anniversary, which falls in Elul, and the yeshiva will hold a special remembrance event that day. Pinto had taught at Hadvat HaTorah after making aliyah and studying at Yeshivat Derech Emunah in Lod. Months before his killing, shortly before his wedding, he left behind dozens of personal letters to his students.
Those letters, the article says, highlighted each student’s unique qualities and abilities and included personal recommendations, blessings, and guidance for their future. The students have described the letters as a precious treasure that reflected the close relationship Pinto maintained with each of them individually.
Yeshiva head Rabbi Meshulam Zusha Brendwein said the connection between Pinto and the students was like “a spark” of Rabbi Yitzchak of Piasczna, author of Chovat HaTalmidim, whom he described as a leading educator who was murdered in the Holocaust after leaving behind a great legacy. Brendwein said it is no surprise that a year after the tragedy, the students still miss him, and he added that they have taken on tractate completions and are close to publishing a volume of insights and lectures on the tractate studied over the past year.
The attack at Ramot Junction in Jerusalem came only two months after Pinto’s wedding. Two Palestinian Hamas terrorists opened fire on bus line 62 at a stop, killing six people: Rabbi Yaakov Pinto, Rabbi Mordechai Steinsig, also known as Dr. Mark, Sarah Mendelson, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Pash, Rabbi Yisrael Matzner, and Rabbi Yosef David. Dozens more were wounded, some seriously and others moderately.
