"I am Sorry, My Brother Yonatan"
They say a person must bless the bad just as they bless the good. But in journalism, it is incredibly difficult to speak a blessing over bad news, especially when you know the person personally and feel so much pain being the one who has to tell everyone what happened to him.
This is not a farewell letter, heaven forbid, because the man I am writing about, Yonatan Razel, is still alive even though his condition is defined as very serious. He needs heavenly mercy and prayers to return to how he was and to get out of danger. Yet, when someone you know and whose work you love(and you have met more than once in the past) is hospitalized in life-threatening condition, it is hard to go about your daily routine, despite the famous cliché written in books and songs that "life must go on."
I assume it is even harder for a person who, instead of hearing about something for the first time like everyone else, must also pass the information along to additional sources. It is painful to be the bearer of bad news regarding a person who is not just another name among many, but a well-known, loved, and talented individual whom the writer of the article himself knows. Now, the writer must remain professional and report the news without bringing in the personal dimension.
Just before Rosh Hashanah this year, I was privileged to hear Yonatan Razel play the piano and sing for the released captive, Eliya Cohen, at an event for community leaders and synagogue gabbaim at the Jerusalem Municipality. He looked so happy when he sang.
In this case, the hospitalization of the musician, conductor, and singer Yonatan Razel for a cardiac treatment, following which he suffered a stroke, is not just a hard and painful blow for his private and extended family. It is a blow to all music lovers who know his story and his work by heart. They find it difficult to hold back tears when they hear that the man who once sang Katonti ("I am unworthy") is now suffering a major medical incident. All that is left to do is pray, cry out to God, and ask for a small miracle that will bring our brother Yonatan out of darkness into a great light.
I'll conclude this outloud thoughts with the words that Razel himself composed, which many still sing in gratitude today:
"For Your kindness is great upon me, and You have saved my soul..."
May it be God's will that what he sang for others will be fulfilled for him.
The Razel family shared an update from Shaare Zedek Medical Center: "Yonatan's condition is stable. We are grateful for the many prayers for his recovery and ask that you please continue to pray for his health. His name for prayer is Yonatan Adi ben Chaya Rachel."