Mother of Tamir Adar at his funeral: ‘You’re free, at home’

Yael Adar, the mother of Tamir Adar, eulogizes her son at his funeral in Kibbutz Nir Oz, two years after he was killed and two days after his body was finally returned to Israel.

“You’re free, at home,” says his mother. “You’re here now, on the grass where you used to run around, beside the tree you used to climb, across from the babies’ house where you arrived when you were born, near the paths where you learned to walk, to run, to ride your bike — on the lawn where you rolled and laughed in joy on holidays, at celebrations, and just in puddles after the rain.”

Yael calls her son a defender of his community, saying that because of his actions on October 7 other people present at the funeral are alive.

The funeral is attended by freed hostages Yarden Bibas, Sagui Dekel-Chen, David Cunio and Yagil Yaakov as well as former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi.

Yael says she pictures Tamir in constant, focused motion, fighting along the paths they once walked together. She recalls asking him if he needed to be in the local security squad, and his answer was that he did, and that he believed the army would arrive right away if needed.

“As a soldier, you trusted them — because that’s who you were,” she says. “And that morning, you were there alone… with just a handful of your friends.”

She says Tamir was a child who loved nature, hiking, soccer and basketball, and the fields and crops of the kibbutz. He was a present, loving brother, son and grandson, and a devoted partner and father, she adds.

Yael recalls coming to his and Hadas’s Nir Oz home a few weeks after October 7. She saw the destruction and devastation, and his green IDF unit album with all his commendations, and thought how lucky it was that the Hamas terrorists didn’t see it on October 7.

She asks his forgiveness for how it ended, and that it took two years to bring him home.

“Know this, Tamir — I will neither forget nor forgive,” says Adar. “And now that you are home, I will still seek the path to reconciliation — in prayer that the price we paid will not be in vain, that you will be the compass for healing, for unity, just as this nation united to fight for your return and to honor you today — the nation, in all its diversity.”