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July 3, 2016 11:02 am
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Thousands Attend Funeral of Otniel Rabbi Killed in Palestinian Terrorist Attack in Front of Wounded Wife, Children (VIDEO)

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Yehoshua and Orit Mark eulogizing their father, Rabbi Michael Mark, at his funeral on Sunday. Photo: Channel 2/Screenshot.

Yehoshua and Orit Mark eulogizing their father, Rabbi Michael Mark, at his funeral on Sunday. Photo: Channel 2/Screenshot.

Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of 48-year-old Rabbi Michael (Miki) Mark, who was murdered in a Palestinian terrorist attack on Friday, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

“I can’t believe we are parting,” his daughter, Orit — one of 10 children — said, weeping. “Only a moment ago you stood by and gave me strength. You said you wouldn’t leave. But now God has taken you. You always told us that our father in heaven takes the best ones, and you, Dad, are the most amazing in the world. My dear father, how much good you added to this world. How much you contributed, how much you gave of yourself to others… I love you and I am really happy that I managed to tell you that so many times. Look at us, broken, but so strong, and that is all thanks to the education you and Mom gave us. There is no father like you. Thank you for getting angry at me when I did bad things. Thank you for every second, for everything you gave me, for helping me be who I am. Thank you for giving me strength.”

Orit then mentioned her mother, who – along with two of her younger siblings — was wounded in the drive-by shooting on her family’s car.

“Please pray for Mom to get well because we need her. Please open the gates of heaven. We all need you and miss you so, so much…”

Mark’s son, Yehoshua, said, “Dad, you don’t like high-and-mighty talk. But you, my father, are full of strength and softness, balance, right and left, yin and yang, and a deep soul. One look of yours provides an answer. Your eyes said that, together, we could overcome any hardship…”

Before the funeral procession set out from the synagogue in Otniel, the Judea/Samaria community that is home to the Mark family, President Reuven Rivlin also gave a eulogy.

“What could be more pure, innocent and void of hatred than a family driving to spend Friday night with their grandmother,” Rivlin said. “Your life was taken from your family at the murderous hands of a cold-blooded killer in front of two of your children and your wife…

“You were a man who loved working with your hands, as well as occupying a prominent place at a house of Torah study,” Rivlin continued, referring to the fact that Mark was the head of the Otniel yeshiva. “A principal who was also a guide, among the pillars of the community, an honest and modest person who gave of himself even when he knew that perhaps his help could not always be reciprocated.”

Rivlin also talked about terrorism, which, he said, “has accompanied us from generation to generation, yet… has never undermined our hold on the land. Jewish blood is not spilled in vain. We will fight terrorism and win.”

Earlier in the day, Mark’s children released a video in which they appealed to the public to attend the funeral.

“He was not only our father,” they said. “He was the father of so many people. He loved so many people, and it is so important to us that people come, because he really did belong to everybody. Come. Everyone will hear something good about Dad and will take that good and be better, more loving people.”

Their mother, Hava Mark, is still hospitalized at the Hadassah/Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem in critical but stable condition.

The two Mark children who were wounded in the attack are also doing better, according to Prof. Avi Rivkind, director of the trauma unit of the hospital’s surgical wing. The 15-year-old son has been released and the 14-year-old daughter is out of danger.

The attack took place on Route 60 in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), when a terrorist overtook the family car and fired at least 19 shots at them. Michael Mark, who was driving, was killed, causing the car to flip over.

The attack took place just a day after a Palestinian terrorist murdered a 13-year-old Israeli girl in her bedroom in Kiryat Arba and two Israelis were wounded in a stabbing attack in Netanya.

Watch Rabbi Mark’s children eulogize him below:

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