Saving one life is like saving the world

On Dec. 12, a terrorist opened fire on a passenger bus on Route 60, just north of the Jerusalem tunnels. The bus continued to the security checkpoint before getting assistance. Twenty-three bullets hit the bus and three people were injured. The young boy in this photo was killed. Just him. Out of 23 bullets, only one person was killed. Miracle?

Our rescue medics (Hatzalah) were at the scene quickly. We were not qui k enough to save the one boy though. We don’t always succeed. It is a hard part of the work.

Take a look at the photo. Not just at the little boy shot in cold blood — look at the boys in the desks around him. A classroom of, maybe, 30 boys? Each one affected for life by the murder of their classmate. Add in the parents of those classmates, who’ll need to learn how to get their own sons safely to sleep at night through these tragic circumstances. The teacher, the principal, and then add the boy’s neighbors, cousins, local shop owners. Inside that boy’s eyes are a hundred other lives shaken forever.

So, a country like Israel that values life will mourn not just the boy but the hundred others directly affected. That’s why we operate in Yehuda and Shomron 24/7, trying to prevent as many of those affected hundreds as we can. Like the Talmud says in Sanhedrin (37a), saving one life is like saving a whole world.

Thank goodness this boy was not alone. His entire family was on the bus with him … they had all been in Jerusalem for a family celebration.

Natalie Sopinsky is Development director at Hatzalah Yehuda v’Shomron, Rescuers Without Borders.