HaRav Yehuda Amital, who was buried Friday, is mourned by thousands. Some mourn the loss of their teacher, some of one of Israel’s great public intellectuals. Some mourn the loss of the founder of Israel’s religious peace movement, Meimad, while others will miss the founder of Yeshivat Har Etzion. And of course there are those who miss a father and grandfather.But when I think of the loss of HaRav Yehuda Amital, I am struck by the loss of a gentle giant, whose spirit was as kind as it was big. I miss a man who walked out of the Holocaust and instead of giving in to either fear or the perspective that Jews should simply do as they will because the world will hate us anyway (based on the principle of Numbers 23:9 of being a people that dwells apart and pays no attention to other nations), he taught the sacredness of every life. That he did so to thousands of students, many of whom sit at the highest levels of religious and academic life in both Israel and abroad, only adds to his greatness.Harav Yehuda Amital’s loss should be mourned by anybody who believes in Torah as paths of gentleness (darchei noam) which spread out from an etz hayim, a tree of life. This YouTube video captures one beautiful moment in a life defined by such teaching.May the memory of this beloved gentle giant be blessed and be a blessing to all who treasure his memory.