A former neighbor recalls Ben Yosef Livnat

Hebron Jewish community spokesman: “Benyo's name reflects the family’s bond with Joseph’s Tomb, where ironically, he was murdered."

Nablus Shooting 311 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Nablus Shooting 311
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Ben Yosef Livnat, 25, was killed Sunday morning after praying at Joseph's Tomb where his father, Noam once sat and learned more than a decade ago.
Shocked and saddened by the death of Livnat, Hebron Jewish community spokesman David Wilder penned an email in which he recalled the young man and his family.
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Ben Yosef’s father Noam was severely wounded while serving in the IDF, according to Wilder.
Noam helped create the Samaria settlements of Kedumim and Elon Moreh where he now lives, wrote Wilder.
He also studied at the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva when it was located at Joseph’s Tomb, wrote Wilder.
Early Sunday morning, Wilder wrote, he awoke to a text message informing him of the shooting at the tomb.
“A little while later, arriving at Ma’arat HaMachpela [the Cave of the Patriarchs] for morning prayers, I asked a friend if he knew who’d been killed. When he answered Ben Yosef Livnat I froze. Benyo, as he was known, had been my neighbor,” wrote Wilder.
“He had studied at Kollel Ohr Shlomo in Tel Rumeida for a few years. I saw him there every morning, studying 'Hassidut,' usually 'Likutai Me’oran,’ the teachings for Rebbi Nachman of Breslev, with a ‘chevruta,’ a study partner, before the nine o’clock start of the regular day’s program,” wrote Wilder.
“During his last year in the Torah program, he moved, with his wife and family, to Beit Hadassah. “They lived in an apartment under ours for about a year, before moving to a Breslev neighborhood in Jerusalem,” Wilder wrote.
“Benyo – Ben Yosef, was one of six children in the family and his name reflects the family’s bond with Joseph and Joseph’s Tomb, where ironically, he was murdered,” wrote Wilder.