HERO OF THE IRON DOME "Aviya Genut, 22, from Tzufim, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on #October7#. During her mandatory army service, she served as an instructor on the Iron Dome battery, and after she finished, she worked as a waitress to save up money for a trip. Her aunt, Yael, was just a few years older than Aviya and the pair would call each other “half,” as shorthand for “my other half.” “A ray of sunshine in the body of a person,” she wrote on Instagram. “You would connect to other people within seconds, you drew people together, you were so alive, dancing with happiness, your presence was so felt. It was impossible to miss you when you entered a room… I will always remember your huge smile and your joy. My heart is burning. Now I have been left just a half.” Her paternal grandmother, Noga, wrote on Facebook a day before her funeral to “my Aviya, beloved, diligent, with a lust for life… How will we say goodbye to you? How will we not see you anymore? We received a gift for 22.6 years, and tomorrow we will give it back. Tomorrow, God will heal your wounds, and we will cry and cry, and we will die from the sadness and pain.” At her funeral, her mother, Yifat, noted that she was born right before Pesach, and killed on Simhat Torah: “We always said that you had a lofty soul,” she said, pointing out that they learned of her death on Shabbat Bereishit, the Shabbat where they read the first book of the Torah, but “we don’t want to start from the beginning [Bereishit] without you." May her memory be a blessing. Source: Times of Israel