Someone told me a true story yesterday about a young man who was killed in a terrorist attack, and yet, “attended” his own shiva (the seven day Jewish ritual of mourning.)
In Israel, there are several organizations designed to comfort terror victims and their families. A woman representing such an organization came to a family with some food and toys for the young children. They had lost a 19 year old young man who had stepped onto the number 14 bus, which exploded in Jaffa Street in Jerusalem in 2003. The woman told the family that she herself had lost an infant to SIDS, and understood what it was to mourn a child. The brother spoke up and said that he knew his deceased brother was fine and happy, and told the following story.
The younger brother, Jacob (not his real name) was riding on a bus on that terrible day. In the middle of the bus ride, he dozed off and had a dream in which he saw his older brother, Isaac (not his real name) standing before him and dressed all in white. Isaac told Jacob that he had died, but he was feeling alright. He told Isaac where everything was in his room, and said that he would be at his own shiva. “Look for me,” Isaac said, “I will be a butterfly.”
Jacob was awakened by the bus driver turning up the radio news full blast; there had been a bus bombing on Yaffa Street. Jacob knew that his brother was dead. He called up their mother on the cell phone. She said that she could not talk, because she was rushing off to the hospital. Although Jacob knew what had happened, he did not have the heart to tell his mother that Isaac was gone.
The family were sitting shiva in their home after the funeral. It was summer and they were hot, so they opened a window. In flew a beautifully colored butterfly, who sat on the mother’s lap. The butterfly moved from one family member to another, and finally rested on the edge of the chair. Amazingly, the butterfly remained in the home for seven days. On the final day of shiva, the butterfly flew up to the dead brother’s bed and rested for a few minutes before flying out the window into the night.