The Stone

In the modern Hebrew society, I don’t know if the custom is originally Jewish or not, it is customary to place a stone on a person’s grave as a show of respect. If I am not mistaken, that custom is evident in Steven Spielberg’s famous film – Shindler’s List. It is even evident on Schindler’s grave itself, in Jerusalem, for it is covered with piles upon piles of stones.

I only mention this because today is the one year anniversary of the death of Asaf Nomkin.

Asaf was my friend. We enlisted together. We trained together. We served together. One year ago, he was found shot dead in a tent in the Balish training camp. They said it was suicide but to this day I still can think of any reason a person like him would want to kill himself.

I won’t bother you with the “Same blood, same mud” or “He such a good and happy person” speeches because I’m sure you’ve heard all of them before. But just think back to all those speeches and all those words and forget that you thought they were bullshit. And know that for this man, they were all true.

Asaf was a true loss to humanity. I can say for certain that him leaving made the ‘Contentment’ and ‘Humorous’ averages in the world drop significantly. Forget about everything else and just remember him. He was truely extra-ordinary.

And so, according to tradition…

Asaf, this one’s for you.

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