Heart-Wrenching Avinu Malkeinu

By COLlive reporter

After most of the crowd dispersed and the media cameras left, a group of Jews remained at the fresh gravesites of Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Frankel and Gilad Shaar, H”YD on Tuesday.

The cold-blooded murder of the three Jewish teens, trying to head home from yeshiva for Shabbos, has shocked the entire Israel and Jewish communities abroad.

Trying to express their emotion and deep sorrow, the group gathered at Modiin cemetery in central Israel, and sang the chassidic melody of “Avinu Malkeinu.”

Based on the Jewish prayer recited during the High Holidays, the tune of “Our Father, Our King” is attributed to Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe and founder of Chabad chassidism.

The Talmud (Ta’anith 25b) relates that the great Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva recited two verses each beginning “Our Father, Our King” in a prayer to end a drought.

It was the feelings of those who sang the niggun that Hashem should put an end to Jewish suffering and bring the ultimate and final redemption speedily in our days.