Poisoned Sisters Laid to Rest

Sandy Eller – VIN News

Jerusalem – Dozens of Roshei Yeshiva, and hundreds friends and relatives turned out to mourn the two young sisters who died after suffering pesticide poisoning in their Jerusalem apartment, one a year and a half old toddler, and the other just two weeks shy of her fourth birthday.

Avigayil Gross, and her younger sister Yael, were buried on Har Hamenuchos and their father Shimon Gross asked for continued tefilos for his two sons, Chaim Michael Shlomo ben Michal and Refael Yitzchak Isaac ben Michal, ages five and seven. Both boys are hospitalized in serious condition after an exterminator sprayed the family’s apartment with toxic chemicals, according to Israeli news source Ynet.

“We don’t understand what goes on in shomayim, but we believe that everything happens for the best,” the father of the two little girls said at the funeral. “What good friends they were. It is impossible to believe. They were such pure neshamos, so sweet and cute. Hashem wanted them next to him.”

As he eulogized his two blond haired daughters, Gross suggested that perhaps he had been unworthy of the precious gifts Hashem had bestowed upon him.

“We have no complaints to Hashem: G-d gave and G-d took back,” said Gross, amid bitter tears. “This is what is left of a person. I ask Avigayil and Yael: beg for heavenly mercy for your brothers, for both their bodies and their souls, and that we should never be tested again.”

As reported on Israeli news sites Maariv and B’chadrei Chareidim, others who addressed the crowd included R’ Aryeh Finkel, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Mirrer-Brachfeld, R’ Yitzchak Ezrachi of the Mirrer and Harav Yaakov Adas. R’ Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, Rosh Yeshiva of the Mirrer, also eulogized the two sisters saying, “How is it possible to digest this? These are pure korbanos, and their deaths obligates us all to wake up and examine our lives. These were pure neshamos, the holiest of the flock.”
Gross, who learns in the Mirrer, described his last memories of his daughters.

“Just yesterday, the two of them were happy. The two of them still danced. Someone came here and grabbed them in an instant. We hadn’t even had a chance to finish davening for them and they were gone.”

Despite her youth, Gross said that Avigayil’s purity was readily apparent.
“She would keep asking me ‘If I do this, will I be doing a mitzvah?’” recalled Gross, according to news site Kikar Shabbos. “If she went outside with her pacifier she would worry that maybe she was making a chilul Hashem. She loved to help, she was such a special neshama. And Yael, she was just learning to say ‘Abba’ and ‘Ima.’ She was so sweet.”

Both Gross and his wife Michael, who were not as seriously affected by the effects of the toxic chemicals, were released earlier today from Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tzedek Hospital so that they could take part in the funeral.

“We are grateful for the wonderful medical care we received,” said Gross who also thanked the many people in Petach Tikvah’s Schneider Medical Center who are treating his two sons. “They need Hashem’s help. We have to be optimistic and hope for the best.”

While the exterminator, who is accused of negligence, remains under house arrest, Gross insisted that his priority now is the welfare of his two sons. Both boys continue to remain on life support as Extracorporeal Membrane Oxgenation equipment continues to take over for their hearts and lungs.

Dr. Ovdei Dagan, director of Schneider’s intensive care unit, estimated that it could take as long as ten days to two weeks for the toxins to pass through the boys’ systems and that their survival depends on their hearts’ abilities to recover from the poisoning.