When a Hurricane Walks Into Your Life: Remembering Fallen Soldier Tal Movshovitz

What do you imagine when someone says “a great man with a huge heart”?Probably something familiar, a bit too general.

And truly, it’s a bit generic, not nearly enough to begin describing Tal Movshovitz.

So, here’s a little more, just a tiny bit.

A million years ago (or so it seems) Tal walked through the door of my polite, adopted British family. [Actually he] didn’t just walk through the door. Tal burst through it, knocking it flat with a loud crash, a massive smile, a booming voice, and a gentle clumsiness.Like an animated character in my life.

With roars and a torrent of words, he never stopped talking for a second. A stream of jokes and a warmth that made us all shift from shock to laughter to shock again, maybe sixteen times over. A decade into it, and I never got used to it.

When Tal paused for breath between a terrible joke and an even worse jab, we’d glance at Eliana. Eliana, the elegant, the serious, the striking, with her year-round straight posture and unmatched practicality, she’d just gaze at him with a melting look we couldn’t help but join. A smile lost in eternity ,the smile of someone who saw something clearly good and now claimed it as hers. Completely smitten, swept away.

Tal loved this land more than I’ve ever loved anything.He loved its human texture, its history, the people of Israel as they are,the land of Israel as it is. And Tal was all in, when he loved, he loved.What a love.

And of course, Tal was an idealist, like in the old days, before ideals became so complicated, so very simple, so crystal clear.

I never managed to talk to him for more than five minutes seriously about the deeper layers our Israeli society has sunk into in recent years.Two minutes into a political discussion, he’d call me a leftist, call my brother to confirm someone else thought I was a leftist, recruit some poor passerby into his cheerful, loud barrage of taunts, and move on to another conversation, with someone else caught off guard by this hurricane.

By the way, picture this: a man the size of a mountain, moving with the grace of a ballet dancer in a room.Oh, and of course, zero tact. Know what? Not zero, minus.

Now imagine a British Shabbat table, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and a bunch of cousins, all rooted in Britain, not some exaggerated Downton Abbey Britishness, but you know, basic Anglo-Saxon courtesy.

A measured tone, very composed, serious conversations, cynical jokes about long-dead relatives, and heaps of subtext floating in the air.And in the middle of all this solemnity sits one giant man, far too big for the chair he’s on (By the way, zero percent fat, yes? Just huge muscle, like a huge heart, really.)

And no. He. Doesn’t. Stop. Talking. With broken English, it’s as if he’s about to make the table itself laugh. He lightens, lightens, lightens, lightens, and he’s big, big, big, big.

That’s all I want to convey here, how light Tal was, how big Tal was. And how, when it works together so charmingly, it sweeps you away. And why, when a man as light as Tal leaves, it’s actually the heaviest thing to happen to this world.

Tal Movshovitz was a life bomb. I once thought that when speaking of someone close who died, it’s best to bring as many facets as possible into words, to sum them up from every angle ,so people would know them best.

Now it’s so clear to me that’s not it, because this is Tal. You can’t encompass Tal.

You can’t even try to encompass Tal, yes, because he’s enormous ,and because he’s simply life itself. And like life, if we were lucky enough to touch it, even a little, without apathy, without cynicism, just a bit, that’s enough. If you were touched by Tal, even just a little, even just in imagination, you’ve won.

Tal Movshovitz, mountain of a man, steak devourer, the world’s best dad, the world’s best partner. The sensitive in man, the good in man. What a joy, what a wonder that I got to witness the hurricane you were. You marvel of the world. What a joy that you stormed into our lives and changed the entire landscape.

Love without limits, truly, truly without limits. And if there was a limit? You’d obliterate it with the flood of your voice.

Tal is total selflessness for the sake of love. So much selflessness.

Tal?This time, you overdid it, my dear. And don’t you dare call me a leftist.

I know in my heart,if they asked you: how? You’d answer, "Only like this."

Eliana, Haleli, and Amitai, I’m here forever and always.

I love you so much.