Before the Official Release: The Man Who First Meets IDF War Dead

"When the phone rings in the morning, you pray it will not be the event you are thinking about," says Rס"ג Moshe Levi, describing the start of his day in a special interview with Srugim. For 21 years, he has served as a gravedigger and body identifier in Northern Command, a role that has made him one of the first people to meet IDF fallen soldiers on their final journey.

"There were some very difficult sights." His path began back in the 1990s. After serving as a religious affairs NCO in the Military Rabbinate, he volunteered for ZAKA North during the terror attacks of the Second Intifada. One of the first incidents seared into his memory was the suicide bombing at the HaEmek Mall in Afula in 2003. A suicide bomber blew herself up at the entrance to the mall, killing three people and wounding dozens more. "I went there with a friend," he recalls. "There were some very difficult sights. We dealt with what needed to be done, of course under the guidance of ZAKA team leaders. After that event, I realized I was capable of dealing with these things."

"At that time there were many attacks in the north, and I was exposed to very difficult incidents. There I understood that I could be in that place and help families in their hardest moments." In 2005, the then Northern Command rabbi approached him and offered him a place in the Military Rabbinate's unit of body handlers and identifiers. "I got my wife's blessing, and I have been in the role ever since."

"There is no schedule in this job" According to him, unlike other roles in the army, you cannot really plan a workday. "You can build a schedule, but the first phone call changes everything. Once there is an incident, everything you planned is canceled. There are no hours and no times. Everything is devoted to handling the fallen and the family."

"We accompany the fallen from start to finish. From identification in the field, through preparation for burial, the farewell with the family, the funeral and the memorial services. It is a completely different calling from ZAKA."

"The hardest moment is not the funeral" Despite his many years in the role, Moshe Levi says the most wrenching moment is not the funeral itself. "The farewell at the family's home is the most powerful moment. There are no crowds there and no eulogies, there is a quiet room, with the family and the fallen soldier. A father saying goodbye to his son, a mother saying goodbye to her son, a wife to her husband. These are moments that are hard to explain in words."

In the conversation, he was asked what he says to the family at those moments. "You hug them, cry with them, strengthen them. Sometimes families burst into tears and sometimes there is complete silence. You are simply there with them."

October 7: "We did not expect such a number of fallen" The Iron Swords War was an unprecedented test for him. "We did not expect this number of fallen," he says. "From the first phone call I received on the morning of Simchat Torah, we understood that we were in a war."

He explained that Military Rabbinate personnel had to deal with scales they had never known before. "When I look back today and say that the whole process was carried out in an orderly way and without mishaps, it is a miracle. This is the work of amazing people who joined forces for one purpose, to bring IDF fallen soldiers to burial with honor."

Suddenly I realized I knew his mother One of the most difficult moments for him occurred after the deadly drone attack on BAHAD 1 Golani in October 2024. In the incident, in which a Hezbollah drone struck the dining hall at the base near Binyamina, four soldiers were killed and dozens more were wounded. "I arrive at the incident, handle the fallen, and after a few hours realize that one of them is the son of someone I know from the army," Levi recalls. "Those were painful moments."

Alongside the pain, he also remembers moments when they managed to meet the mission despite the time pressure. "On the eve of Rosh Hashanah we managed to bring a fallen soldier to burial just an hour before the holiday, in accordance with the family's request. When you know you gave the family what was important to them, it is an enormous sense of mission."

We are not machines Despite the difficult scenes, Levi describes how life at home goes on. "We are not machines. You come home and the events stay with you, but home is the anchor. The embrace from my wife and children gives me strength to get up the next day."

We asked him what, in the end, keeps him going. "I get up in the morning, put on the uniform and head out for another day of mission. I pray that we will not have to work, but if we do, we will do it as best as possible."

Rס"ג Moshe Levi at the Chief of Staff's Outstanding Service award ceremony. A week ago, Levi received the Chief of Staff's Outstanding Service award, but in his view the credit belongs to the system as a whole. "I am not outstanding alone, it is an entire system of career and reserve personnel, people who have no days and no nights. If there is an incident, we drop everything and go out. It is one chain, and if one link does not work, everything is affected."