The rabbi killed along with his wife and four others in the Mumbai Jewish centre was reading a book about how to deal with terrorists when he was murdered, it emerged today.

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, was found by his colleague, Rabbi Dov Goldberg, lying slumped on the ground of his living quarters wrapped in tefillin, a prayer aid containing the Hebrew scrolls.

On his bedside table were found copies of Jewish holy texts along with a book entitled: 'How to protect yourself when terrorists come to your house.'

The news emerged during an emotional funeral service in Kfar Chabad, just outside Tel Aviv, during which it was also revealed that Rabbi Holtzberg's wife Rivka, who was also killed, was five months pregnant when she died.

Rabbi Goldberg – who will take over as leader of Nariman House, the centre targeted – spoke of the moment he discovered his friend and his wife and realised he would have to take over his mission.

"I was called in to identify Gavy's body," he said. "Next to the night stand, on the bed, there were several religious books, and next to the books was another (book): 'How to protect yourself when terrorists come to your house.'

"I looked at him and understood that I was the one who would need to make sure that the Chabad (orthodox Jewish group, which runs the centre) lives on, that I would be called on to do this.

"I looked at him and my first thought was that I could not do it. The next day I woke and realised that I had to - and that I could not let this holy work die out."

The Rabbi added that his dead colleague's two-year-old son, Moshe, who was not at the procession, had not slept for four days. Moshe miraculously escaped from the gunmen with his nanny as the siege started.

"What helped me to get out of my depression, to give me comfort, is that the real miracle happened and the child Moshe fled with the nanny," he said. "It is a little light at the end of the tunnel."

As Rabbi Goldberg spoke, thousands of black coat and black hat-clad mourners turned Kfar Chabad into a sea of mourning for the six who died – four Israelis, an American and a Mexican – after gunmen struck Nariman House last Wednesday. Among those marking the lives of those who died was Shimon Peres, Israel's ceremonial president.

The Holtzbergs’ bodies – hers wrapped in a shroud, his in a prayer shawl - rested on chairs on the dais where the eulogies and prayers were delivered.

During the service, a eulogy by Rabbi Goldberg disclosed that Rivka had told him she was five months pregnant. The news represents the latest chapter in a story of personal tragedy afflicting their family. The only other surviving member of the family, toddler Moshe’s brother, has Tay-Sachs, a terminal genetic disease, and is hospitalised in Israel. The Holtzbergs’ eldest son has already died of the disease.

The Holtzbergs had lived in Israel and Brooklyn before they moved to Mumbai in 2003. Rabbi Holtzberg also had US citizenship.

Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz, another religious Jew at the memorial procession held ahead of the funeral later this afternoon, said: "On my left (is) the body of Rabbi Holtzberg and Rivka and on my right is Rabbi Dov (Goldberg). It is him that gives me spirit. Knowing that he will go back and continue Rabbi Gavy's (Holtzberg's) work gives me hope."

The community has promised to rebuild the Mumbai centre and name it after the Holtzbergs. Chabad, the organisation which runs the centre, operates thousands of such outreach centres around the world.

Giving a eulogy at the ceremony, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky aimed his message to little Moshe, saying: "You don’t have a mother who will hug you and kiss you. You are the child of all of Israel."

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