Yehuda Natan Cohen grew up in Shadmot Mehola, studied at the High Yeshiva in Hispin, and spent one year at the Eli Preparatory School, and from there he enlisted in the Sayeret Givati.
T., from Yehuda's family, spoke to us about Yehuda and said that "the family in which Yehuda grew up has deep roots, values, full of fear of heaven, they came to the Jordan Valley to settle the land, a house steeped in Torah, yeshiva language in the house, they were hosts The Yeshiva students at every opportunity, that's where Yehuda grew up."
Doing big things and treating them as small
In his words, T. described the qualities of Yehuda, when he said: "Yehuda was moral, connected to the land, the Torah and fear of heaven, but what characterized him the most was his modesty, he would do big things and treat them like small things."
About a week after the war broke out, Yehuda had a break of half an hour and he decided to go visit T. who was also conscripted. Yehuda told him how he was jumped to the south on Simchat Torah, "and traveled like a madman" to reach the kibbutzim in the Otef (Gaza envelope). When the stages in the story came where he could be proud, of the fighting and heroism, he stopped the story because "he had no ego".
The family later found out what happened in Nahal Oz on Simchat Torah. Yehuda, who was a gifted chess player, decided to build a strategy and prepare the moves before going into combat. He learned what was happening in Nahal Oz, how the settlement was built, what was inside, and how many terrorists were in the kibbutz - and with the help of the information he conducted the battle.
"Nahal Oz is adjacent to Be'eri, it could have ended like in Be'eri, because of the fighting and heroism of Yehuda's company, from Nahal Oz there were ten dead and five kidnapped, and the soldiers returned in peace", said T. He also said that when Yehuda would call from the war, he "would claim, 'We are guarding Nahal Oz.' Today we know that he fought a battle against dozens of terrorists."
According to T., Yehuda used to deal with weighty issues, matters of the utmost importance. "With his father, mother, and brothers at the Shabbat table, there were always meaningful conversations, 5 minutes later he would go play with the five-year-old nephews, "catch", and then sit down with a 70-year-old man for chess, that was Yehuda, he knew how to connect with everyone."
