What is our response to the massacre?
A response to the question "why?"
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Dear Rabbi Freeman,
I can't handle this. Here's a young couple with a small child who left their families to live in a strange land, just for the sake of helping build the Jewish community there. You know how many kids they saved from drugs and from prison? This is their reward? This is the protection G‑d gives them?
--S
Dear S,
We're all in pain. We're all stunned. But you are asking questions you know you cannot answer. Why? How will that help anyone? What we need now is strength and courage. What we need now is to regather our forces and to rebuild.
They carry assault rifles and grenades. We carry candles for Friday night, a Torah of wisdom, joy and beauty
We knew beforehand that we are at war with an enemy. We knew that the world needs to be healed, that it oozes with a venomous darkness, and that darkness will not sit passively as we steal away its dominion. We knew that the more we fight this darkness, the harder it will fight back. We didn't fool ourselves. We decided we will fight and we will win. That is why Gavriel and Rivky went where they went. They went not as tourists, but as fearless soldiers.
Once you are at war, you don't stop to ponder all over again—can we win? Is this worth it? Maybe they're worse than we thought? That's deadly. If you would rather stay home and enjoy comfort while the rest of the world sits out in the cold, you should have decided that a long time ago. Now you are out there on the field of battle, you have already awakened the bear from its den, now there is no turning back.
They are darkness. We are light. They storm the shores with death in their eyes. We come to teach compassion and acts of beauty. They carry assault rifles and grenades. We carry candles for Friday night, a Torah of wisdom, joy and beauty.
Are we to surrender before them? Are we to stop and cry and ask, "maybe we're fighting the wrong battle"?
On the Shabbat that we confirmed our worst fears, Chabad held a Shabbaton for over 40 people in Mumbai. A Chabad rabbi of another city in India came to host the event. We will not abandon the 5,000 Jews of Mumbai, nor the constant flow of Israeli backpackers needing guidance on their journey--we will work even harder now on their behalf. We will revenge the work of violence by doubling and quadrupling our works of peace and love. We will fill the world with light and wisdom and the spirit of darkness in men's hearts shall forever perish. They come with their guns and their might, with a god of destruction and terror, but we come in the name of the Eternal, the source of all life and healing. They and all memory of them will vanish from the face of the earth and our lamp will burn forever.
May the Almighty G‑d hear the cry of their blood from the earth and put an end to all sorrow. May it be very soon, sooner than we can imagine.
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Latest Comments:
I understand your concerns regarding protection. But I would rather not go to .22", because G-d did not instruct Moses to carry a sickle or sword while confronting Pharoah, but gave him a rod and mere opening of his mouth to perform miracles. When one has placed his utmost trust in the provision and protection upon G-d's mantle, faith has carried through many generations and has glorified G-d.
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I was deeply saddened by the events that transpired in Mumbai. Having spent a good portion of my youth going to and then being a counselor @ Camp Gan Israel, I met a multitude of young Yeshiva boys from Morristown. I can’t help but think of how most went on to run Chabads worldwide or drive a Mitzvah Tank through some not so pleasant areas. While I do not agree with all aspects of the movement, I have never seen any non-Chabad rabbi set up a sukkah in Chicago and give a fellow yid a chance to celebrate with a lulav and estrog. Not to mention, ticket-free Rosh Hashanah.
What puzzles me is that we would disperse these young men and their families without providing adequate protection. In the words of the late Meir Kahane” For every Jew a .22”. No need for heavy, imposing guards, but lets get real and get something in place.
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Thanks for sharing your views. I have no issue with you for sharing your viewpoints. I think you are expressing your genuine feelings and I celebrate your right and ability to do so, I even go so far as to congratulate you for having these views. I hope you in no way take our discusion to mean anything more then that. I do not sit in judgement of anyone and I feel that you are entitled to view the world as you see fit. Your soul sees the world in a unique way as does mine.
I was only trying to call out how in some tragedies we want to connect first with our primordal conennections and naturally that means excluding others. It is the way we were raised, myself included. I have come to see the world not as a us/them developed developing or first and third world scenairo. You are free to disagree. One thing we can share is our hate for those that divide and conquer. That want us to fear and to hate our neighbor.
Thanks for sharing of your vision and dreams.
Warm regards
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We Jews want to do right.
We want it so badly that we doubt ourselves.
Do we care enough?
Are we generous enough?
Compassionate enough?
Saintly enough?
LOOK AROUND.
NOBODY doubts himself as we do ourselves.
NOBODY else BLAMES himself the way we do.
Stop trying to be PERFECT.
Perfectly purple cannot be perfectly gold.
We are golden. Not perfectly, but golden.
Those who attack us are purples.
Purps. Perps. Perpetrators.
If you defend them, then defend 9/11.
WAKE UP.
Some acts ARE WRONG.
Killing Rivka was WRONG.
Orphaning Moise was WRONG.
Wife beaters are WRONG.
Wife-beaters and other perps will blame their victims IF they can get away with it.
We must STOP their getting away with it.
Do they have a good reason, such as, the wife talked back?
NO!
For some people--slave owners and wife-beaters and terrorists--
their reason is, BECAUSE THEY CAN.
Because we fail to STOP them.
We must STOP them.
And stop making excuses for them.
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Mr. Freeman, you're right, I'm a gentile and to me, the Jews represent G-d. I recall speaking with an anti-semite cultist, and I told him that whenever I heard of or saw a Jew, it reminded me of God.
Hopefully, as you stated in your article: "They (muslim terrorrists) and all memory of them will vanish from the face of the earth". May G-d, The Eternal accomplish this speedily, Amen !
Best wishes to all the Jews!
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All human beings are in a unique situation vis-a-vis each other. We have the unique ability to connect with each other in a very profound way--thorugh our words, and deeds. We can use our words and deeds to comfort other humans beings or we can use our actions and words to invalidate each other.
This tragedy has brought people together to comfort and connect each other. Our differences are really our own construct. We can chose to live amongst people that look, dress, and think like us "our own" and connect with these people more profiundly. Or we can chose to see everyone as "our own".
Terrorists tend to want to divide us an concquer us at our weakest. They love divisions, splinters, breaks and tears. They want to strip us of our corps beliefs.
I refuse to allow other to define and assign for me who to connect with, who to mourn, who to love and where and with whom to associate.
In the end we are all the childrne of G-d--even those who hate!
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Rabbi, after watching little Moish cry 'Ema! Ema!' while searching the crowd for his beloved mother, I was broken beyond words. As a result of this tradegy, I have decided to also bring light into the world in honor of Moishels' mother and father! From now on I will start keeping Shabbat 100% now as well as to learn Torah on a regular basis.
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The Jews in the Nariman House were the only ones targeted for brutal torture. The crime is more poignant when you consider that the Holtzbergs were there expressly with a mission of generosity and kindness. Gavriel spoke of his efforts to influence Hindus to care for their own as well. The terrorists themselves, when they came to spy out their target months in advance, ate at the Holtzberg's table and enjoyed their hospitality.
So, yes, while this massacre was an affront to the dignity of all humankind, and many lost their lives senselessly, the world must not forget that at least 20% of the terrorist resources were focused upon destroying a Jewish beacon of light. Meaning that terror itself knows which is its most potent antidote.
Now ask yourself: Why is it that when one nation has an issue with another nation, the Jews are attacked? Think of the Crusaders, the Cossacks, the Czar, the Nazis, and today these Pakistani terrorists. Why is nobody puzzled?
The simple answer: Because when nations go to war, it is not against humanity alone, it is against the spark of divinity within us--against G_d. And, as Paul Johnson asserts in his History of the Jews, to the gentile, the Jewish People represent G_d.
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David, I don't understand what is the big problem you have in the mourning sessions of Amy and I? Are you weighing in how many tears we dropped for the Indians and the Jewish victims? Then, forget it.
I would like you to know that when the Jewish hearts and blood is connected, we feel the pain. It is a human nature. We don't go about crying out loud for those of other nations; we might feel sorry for them. On the other hand, the community was touched, because they had murdered innocent rabbis in a foreign land along with other victims. Since, people attend Chabad, it is quite natural to express their pain more significantly than for the Indians.
In fact, when I was young, I had read a book on "Odeyse" and cried while reading, because of the suffering of mankind. It is just an emotional reaction, so I hope you can rest this matter once and for all.
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Dear Rabbi Freeman,
First I want to say Amen, from your lips to G-d's Ears. But with all due respect and humility, that didn't answer the question raised. We say everyday in our prayers and we learn that there are rewards for specific deeds not only in the next world but in this one too.
When the Shliachs of blessed on memory were murdered, they were performing several of those type of mitzvahs. I never question anything G-d does in his wisdom; but I don't understand - shouldn't they have enjoyed His protection? Wouldn't it have been a bigger sanctification of G-d's name and miracle for them to have survived, to show the world and us His glory? I know this isn't the first time this question comes up, or that I am the first person to ask it, but it has always plagued me. Is there an answer or will this remain a mystery that only Moshiach will answer?
PS. I want to wish you and all of Israel a Happy Chanukah!
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