Father of 7 killed in NY fire mourns ‘beautiful lilies’ plucked too soon

Seven Jewish siblings who were killed in a devastating New York house fire over the weekend were laid to rest Monday after their bodies were flown to Israel for burial.

Hundreds of mourners, including the chief rabbi of Israel, attended the emotional service, which was repeatedly interrupted by anguished cries.

“Why seven? Is one not enough? Seven beautiful lilies,” their father, Gabriel Sasson, cried out during a eulogy. “So pure. So pure.”

Sassoon — who lost seven of his eight children in the deadly blaze — said the kids were “innocent lambs.”

“Here before you are seven innocent lambs, Elian, Rivka, David, Yehoshua Moshe, Sarah, Ya’akov. Seven lilies. Seven innocent lambs. They were such pure children,” Sassoon said.

The seven lambs is a reference to the biblical requirement to bring a burnt sacrifice, consisting in part of “seven unblemished lambs,” to the Temple on the first of the month. The seven Sassoon children died on the first day of the Jewish month of Nissan.

Quoting a verse from the Song of Songs 6:2, “My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies,” Sassoon said: “God plucked seven lilies.”

“To you God I give everything. My soul. Everything. This is my feeling,” he added.

David Lau, Israel’s chief rabbi for Ashkenazi Jews, described the fire as an unspeakable tragedy and urged the family to remain strong. “Each one is a flower in God’s garden,” he said.

The bodies of the Sassoon siblings, ages 5 to 16, were flown to Israel overnight from New York and whisked away to Jerusalem in a convoy escorted by police.

The bodies, wrapped in shrouds, were displayed on stretchers for a memorial service in a room crowded with dozens of mourners. After the service, they were to be buried at Jerusalem’s main cemetery.

The fire has shattered the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. Investigators believe it was caused when a hot plate, left on for the Jewish Sabbath, malfunctioned, setting off flames that incinerated the stairs of their home, trapping the children in their second-floor bedrooms as they slept.

The blaze killed three girls and four boys. The mother and a daughter — Gayle Sassoon and 14-year-old Siporah Sassoon — remain in critical condition.

Israeli media have said the family lived in Jerusalem before moving to New York two years ago.

Alon Edri, who identified himself as a rabbi and relative of the family, said it was significant for the religious family to be buried in the Holy Land.

“We believe that being buried in Israel is important because all of your sins are then absolved,” he said.