The funeral of Rabbi Yeshayahu Akiva Krishevsky, killed in a terror attack in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning. Photo: screenshot/Kikar HaShabbat.

Thousands of mourners gathered for the funeral procession of Rabbi Yeshayahu Akiva Krishevsky, who was killed on Tuesday when a terrorist rammed his vehicle into a group of pedestrians waiting at a Jerusalem bus stop.

The procession for Krishevsky, who was 59, began at the Pinsk-Karlin Beit Midrash [Jewish house of study and prayer], located in the predominantly ultra-Orthodox Beit Yisrael neighborhood of Jerusalem, and set out for the Har Hamenuchot cemetery. During the procession, influential Rabbi Elimelech Biderman said the attack signaled that God was trying to send a message.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was also among the mourners. According to Israeli news website nrg, he was encouraging yeshiva students from outside Israel to maintain patience amid the current wave of violence, which has seen dozens of individual knifing, car-ramming and other terrorist attacks against Israelis since the beginning of October alone. Seven Israelis and 27 Palestinians, including 11 identified attackers, have been killed in the spasmodic violence that erupted around the Jewish New Year last month.

According to initial reports, an east Jerusalem man rammed a vehicle, registered under the Israeli telecom company Bezeq, into a bus stop on Malchei Yisrael Street in the Geula neighborhood, hitting two pedestrians, including Krishevsky. Then, the assailant emerged from his vehicle brandishing a cleaver and began stabbing the wounded — before he himself was shot.

According to Israel’s Walla news, Krishevsky was on his way to meet his regular study partner following morning prayers when the attack occurred. One mourner, a haredi man named Mordechai, told Walla that Krishevsky was known among Jerusalem haredim as a “smart Jewish student…well known among hassidim and Jerusalem haredim.”

Krishevsky is survived by a wife and one son.