Long Branch, NJ – A fifth grader the son of a Lakewood, NJ, principal was killed after a baseball hit his throat on Friday afternoon.
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Hatzolah responded when Nine-year-old Eliyohu Dabba, the son of the menahel of the cheder, Keter Torah, in Lakewood, NJ, was hit by a baseball that was thrown at him by his brother on Friday afternoon.
Eliyahu was taken to Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, where attempts to revive him continued for an hour, but he was pronounced dead in the emergency room.
The levaya is scheduled this morning at 11:00 AM at Park Avenue and Route 35 in Deal, NJ.
U/D:
Some 1,000 mourners assembled at the services for Eliyahu Dabbah O”H
Many of the mourners stood solemnly outside the Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapel in the cold rain and listened to the service broadcast over loudspeakers. Many stood under umbrellas and uttered soft prayers.
Through the raindrops, tears streaked the faces of the mourners. For these devout people, the service turned on a search for meaning in tragedy.
The boy’s father addressed the crowd at the end of the service.
“He was always smiling,” the dad said calmly. “I asked my little boy, 6 years old, what he thought. (He said) “”I’m sad, because I’m going to miss him, but I’m happy he’s going to eternity.’ ”
Rabbi Matisyohu Salomon of the Beth Medrash Govoha Yeshiva in Lakewood told the mourners that to find meaning here, they needed to elevate themselves above the immediate pain.
“On one side is this greatest tragedy,” he said. “On the other side, one of the biggest and most wonderful manifestations of truth.”
That truth, he went on to say, is that we “are not here for this world” but for eternity.
“What do we have children for?” Salomon asked. “”For these few years?”
The child, he went on to say, is teaching us all this morning. A pure soul, this child is guaranteed eternity, he said.
“”When I heard the news,” Salomon said, “”I burst into tears . . . but we cry forourselves, not for this child.”
In what was described as a highly unlikely accident, medical and police officials said the death affected them as well.
Hatzalah EMS captain Avi Aboud, who responded to the 4 p.m. emergency call, said the EMS squad found the boy in cardiac arrest when they arrived.
Aboud said the community surrounding the Dabbahs is “very close,’ and the death of Eliyahu resonates throughout the community.
“It hits everybody,” he said. “”We should only meet like this in happy times.”
Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Peter Warshaw said a routine investigation was conducted, but there was never any reason to believe the death was more than terrible misfortune.
Though no adults were present at the time, there seems to have been no delay in attempts to get help for Eliyahu, Warshaw said. The medical examiners report named the cause of death as blunt force trauma from the baseball, he said.
“The Monmouth County law enforcement community extends it condolences to the Dabbah family as it deals with this awful tragedy,” Warshaw said.
After the service, the casket was taken to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, where in the company of a few rabbis and his father, Eliyahu was taken to Israel to be buried with his grandmother.
The family will sit Shiva for seven days at their home.
Boruch Dayan Haemes…….that is such an awful story….
Burich Dayin hu’emes. Hashem Yerchem. Klal yisruel suffered enough tzuris already.
this is not what we go to freshen up outside & to air out & to play ball for.. nebech.. this is a real tragedy.. also poor kid who threw the ball how bad must he feel??
Oy gevald! I just don’t understand how a ball thrown by a boy can kill someone. Its not like the boy threw the ball at 90 mph?! Was there a preexisting condition?
he was struck in the throat and could not breathe
Terrible tragedy.
In our games all the kids must wear a helmet when they are batting and when they are on base. No exceptions. And the rest of the players on the team that is batting must stay behind a fence. And here we play hardball.
The terrible tragedy happened…already….nebuch nebuch for “BOTH” family’s…but now the day after…let’s pick up a lesson,,,let all all mchonchim and manholim go in to all classes around the globe..and teach kids that when you play you don’t have to be WILD…cuz some times I see children playing and I pray to hoshem that tragedys shouldn’t happen,,,
Now..one word to this poor boy…that did it…everything is from hoshem…this was boshert…you were the shleeach…hoshem should help all partys involved.that from now on only good things should happen!!!
god help us all. this is so terrible. please hashem, I beg you to help us and there should be no more tragedies like this anymore.Please send us moshiach already.Do it not for us but in honor of the heiliger toirah !
Boruch Dayan emes.
I am so sorry for the entire family. May Hashem help them through this devastating time. Nebech.
wow, I am sorry to hear about this terrible tragedy. I hope the family can have only simchas to share with the community in the future.
What a horrible tragedy !
I dont know the family but i feel their pain. May hashem console them.
BD”H
Tragedies happen. Accidents happen.
I must admit that all too often I do see youngsters playing ball without proper safety equipment, and without proper ball facilities (dugout, backstop, etc).
Hopefully the boy who threw the ball will find peace within himself knowing that it was not his fault and he will go on.
i feel really bad for the kid that throw the ball he must feel like **** now and it could screw up his life now with kids making fun of him…
he should probably get hypnotized so he forgets it…
ribboinu shel olam ! enough tragedies already !
Time for simchas, everyone smile and be happy.
when i was in yeshiva 30 years ago, during recess we were playing baseball and the pitcher was hit with a line drive in the testes.He fell down on the field, and the rebbe called an ambulance.His injury was so severe that the doctors had to operate and remove the damaged tissue.
Unfortunately, as the doctors warned at the time, he has never been able to have children.
playing sports is alot of fun, and important for our kids exercise.
But the proper safety gear must always be worn including helmets, pads, and cups.
(Reply to 13) I have no idea what was wrong with that comment….its the most realistic comment so far in this whole story…most comments say nebuch nebuch…trust me no family member of both familys are reading now VIN..but we as parrents and we as mchonchim have to look at the next step..that such a tragedy shouldn’t repeat and let’s teach our children how to behave when they play.
I know the family personally and I can tell you the Dabbahs are such special people in so many ways, even way before this tragedy happened. Anyone who knows them from Yeshiva of Brooklyn or from the Syrian community can tell you this.
I came back from the levaya two hours ago, and hundreds of people were there, not a dry eye in the house.
Eliayhu was playing in his yard with his brother, and the brother threw the ball (it wasn’t a hardball baseball) and accidentally hit him in an artery by his throat. Rabbi Dabbah consoled his son that day (and today by the levaya) that it wasn’t his fault, rather it was decreed min Hashomayim. May this special family see only nachas from now on and know no more tragedy.
to # 10 . u are one very sick individual . lucky i dont know you because if i did your friends would be saying that i was a shliach and life goes on .
HIS BROTHER HIT THE BALL AFTER HE PITCHED IT HIT GLOVE THEN NECK
a helmet could not prevent any thing in this case .he got hit in the neck
this is actually my first time on the blog, to read about this tragedy. i think that there shouldn’t even be comments about this unless you are just telling the family “hamakom ….”. there is no reason to bicker, snap and yell at eachother. and there is no reason we have to start giving lessons on how to play baseball. let us all look at ourselves and fix ourselves before fixing the world…and we should share in only simchas!!!
and to the family that is suffering through this tragedy, we are all feeling it with you and hope that Hashem hears our pain and brings the geula…QUICK!!! AMEN!!
Hamokom yinachem eschem betoch shaar aveilei Tzion viYerushalayim.
Mr monsey!!! We asked you not to explain,,,why did you?? Its a open gemureh..VHOCOY YITEN AL LIBOY….the person who is alive should take out a lecture…should learn a lesson,,,as one of the comments mentioned non of these familys need our comments here…but we must take out of this horrific story to warn our kids to be carefull…and this will be the bigest toivah for the YOUNG NESHUMAH
We are in the period of the Omer im reading all these comments and there’s such controversy the whole reason for the omer is to work on ourselves and try to improve one thing and work on it and become better people and RESPECT each individual…..
Its not our place to comment on how this could have been prevented obviously it was a decreed on rosh hashanah and we should all be pledging to learn mishnayot for this boy a”h.
I will do the 1st perek of pirkei avos leuley nishmat this boy….feel free to as much or as little as you can.
It sounds to me that there is no protective gear that could have prevented this tragedy.
The Dabbahs are truly special people. They say that Hashem takes the best of us to be a kapparah for klal yisroel. So instead of everyone trying to figure out safer ways to play sports, we shouild reflect on this tragedy & try to better our selves spiritually.
Hamokoim Yenocheim Eschem bsoch shor aveilei tzion veyurshalaim.
I have no other words &don’t find the above posts appropriate, not having such pain, of one child accidently .. another in the same family, should leave all of us speachless.
Reply to 36…thanks for your comment about mishnoyis…but I still feel that the comments that people made about going forward to teach and show kids how to play..”SAFE” I still think that its 100 percent the right. Time and this will be the biggest toveh for the nashumah…and the bigest toiveh for this poor little boy that by mistake did it….and. TOKEH in sfeerah is the the time to talk and discuss safety issues….good night to all of you!!!
It is a terrible tragedy and my sincerest condolesnces to the all of Dabba family. Unfortunately whenever someone attempts to point the matter in a different (hopefully positive direction) he is attacked for being insensitive. I would like to point out the following in the hopes that some people will make a serious cheshbon hanefesh and not immediately rush to defend their own ondefensible behaviour. The gemara in yerushalmi Ta’anis 4:5 say that city of Tur shimon was destroyed because they played ball. One opinion offered by commentaries is that they played on shabbos desecrating the spirit of Shabbos if not the actual laws Shabbos. A second opinion is that they played ball. They wasted their time involved with “hevlai sha’ah and forsoke Torah study. In most chassidisha Yeshivas, standard goishe sports are not played so as not to aggrandize a group of people that get paid millions to play a game and waste YOUR time as an armchair quarterback. The only reason to appreciate western sports is because by the grace of G-d, Goyim are involved insomething that keeps their minds off Yidden. The Time effort, thought and money spent on sports in America is the same time effort, thought and money that went into a pogrom in der heim. Jews need to go skiing? There are easier ways to break a leg? They Need to play hockey and football and baseball or go horseback riding? These are sports with a consistent injury rate that includes permanent disability and fatalities. The people that will claim “there is a MITZVAH of ushmartem es nafshoseichem are patently dishonest when there are many forms of excercise that do not involve contact or competitive sports. Ushmartem es nafshoseichem would exclude those sports that have a consistent history of injury and permanent disability.
Mamesh a tragedy for the family. Rabbi Dabbah lost a granddaughter a few years ago. Hamakom Yenacheim Osam Besoch Avalay Tzion V’yerushalayim!!
Make they see many simchot!
This is a response to #’s 6, 10, 14, 15, 16, 22, and 24… I am Eliyahus !st cousin. I jhave to say that reading some of these comments disgusted me. I now understand why innocent children are hurt. Because of idiots like you. They were playing a simple game of ball like they do every friday. They are not wild kids, they are the sweetest angels… #16 - if you dont have anything intellegent to say dont say… i cant stress enough, #22 , how well behaved these kids are. And #24 all of Eliyahus siblings are 100% torah obbservant…. SO FOR ALL OF YOU IF YOU DONT KNOW THE FAMILY OR WHAT HAPPENED STOP MAKING ASSUMPTIONS AND STUPID INNAPROPRIATE COMMENTS AND REPENT BEFORE MORE INNOCENTS CHILDRENS ARE NIPHTAR FOR YOUR SINS!!!!!!!
As a Rebbe in the school, I would like to set the record straight. The boys WERE NOT playing with a hard ball. THERE WAS no game. They were innocently hitting a SOFTBALL around in their own backyard on a Friday afternoon. A pitch was tossed – Slowly Underhand – and the ball was hit. It was not hit exceptionally hard, and it was deflected by the Niftar – Eliyahu Z”L – before it hit his neck. The ball hit the nerve in the neck refered to as the Vega (maybe Vegas) nerve, and caused the child to go into immediate tramatic Cardiac Arrest. As per the doctors and Hatzolah members that I personally spoke to, for such a thing to happen is about as likely as the child being hit by a leaf while walking down the street and dying. There was no negligence. There were no saftey measures that could have been taken to avoid this tragedy. These events were orchestrated by The Hand Of G-d for His specific purpose, which we will never understand.
While it is important for us to look for lessons in every event that happens around us, we must be very careful to be sensitive to others. By discussing safety measures and precautions as a lesson to be learned, you are indirectly (or directly) insinuating that the family was not as careful as they should have been. You may be saying with one breath that it is not the child’s fault, but you are saying with the next breath that we must be MORE CAREFUL. The boy who hit the ball is a Talmid of mine. He is the sweetest boy, who is also very sensitive. He told me on Motzaei Shabbos “People will say we were not careful. People will say I was not careful!!” – and then he broke down.
Hashem Natan VeHashem Lakach – Yehi Shemo Mevorach. Let us look within OURSELVES for Hashem’s message. Let’s be more sensitive. Let’s appreciate the wonderful gifts that Hashem has given us. Let us be Nose BeOl Chaveireinu a little more – specifically during these days of Sefiras Haomer. And let’s bring Moshiach so we can be Zocheh to end this Golus and get a glimps into the infinite wisdom of the Omniscient One – Hashem Yisbarach – and appreciate all that He does as being good.
Boruch Dayan Emes! I sit here in tears. Hamakom yenachaim eschem bsoch shear avlei zion vyerushalayim.
I did not blame the victim. I was trying to avoid more victims. By all opinions the incident was a freak accident, but continuing ignoring that contact sports is a major cause of childhood and adolescent injury is hypocritcal when claiming the torah mandates “inishmartem es nafshosaichem. My comments were in the context of “vihachai yitain el libo” concerning future preventable incidents. Thank you for not dissappointing me and continuing to defend the indefensible, i.e., the continued participation in goyishe sports.
horrible tradgity