A baby girl was born on Friday—just before Shabbos—to the almanah of R’ Raphael Mordechai ben R’ Moshe Fishoff Hy”d, who was brutally murdered in a terror attack in Hadera this past Erev Yom Kippur.

The newborn is the seventh child in the Fishoff family and will, heartbreakingly, never meet her father—an exceptional talmid chacham who gave his life al kiddush Hashem.

R’ Raphael Mordechai, just 35 years old at the time of his murder, was stabbed in a horrific multi-location terror attack on October 10, 2024. He was critically wounded and later succumbed to his injuries at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, leaving behind a grieving wife and six yesomim.

Now, just months later, his widow gave birth to a baby girl. Chazal teach in Yerushalmi Moed Katan that when a new child is born during the year of aveilus, it softens the midas hadin upon the family. Some poskim say this applies to the birth of a daughter as well, and even to any simchah that enters the home.

R’ Raphael Mordechai was known for his extraordinary tzidkus, his complete separation from olam hazeh, and his tireless devotion to Torah. From his early years in Yeshivas Darkei Moshe in Bnei Brak to his ascent as a leading ben Torah in Yeshivas Knesses Yitzchok in Hadera, he lived with a palpable sense of kedushah and purpose. Even after marriage, he remained fully immersed in limud haTorah, admired by his peers and roshei yeshiva.

During the brief shivah, held just before Yom Kippur, his almanah shared a powerful insight with HaRav Yehoshua Ehrenberg, Rosh Yeshivas Knesses Yitzchok: “All his life, my husband would say that he wanted to be zocheh to die al kiddush Hashem.” That awe-inspiring aspiration was fulfilled in the most tragic way.

Yehi zichro baruch.

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