Yitzchak Vorst

An attempt to obey this compassionate, humane instruction of our Talmudic Sages -- to reach out through the written word and offer solace and comfort to others who, like me, have suffered bereavement.

An attempt to obey this compassionate, humane instruction of our Talmudic Sages -- to reach out through the written word and offer solace and comfort to others who, like me, have suffered bereavement.

Such were my reflections after G-d took my son Boruch back. Time has passed. Unimaginable as it may have seemed at the time, it has again become possible to laugh and feel joy, although in a different way. The wound has healed; but a scar remains. I have ...

I believe in G-d. And that is precisely why I ask how a loving G-d could allow such a dreadful thing to happen -- to wrench from me a child who was part of my heart. If I did not believe in G-d, heaven forbid, I would not be surprised that there is so muc...

I feel strange inside. Nothing seems to be working right. The normal process of thinking quietly and then reaching a conclusion does not function. And even when I come to some intellectual understanding, I cannot control my feelings. Oh my G-d, it hurts s...

How can we understand and explain the process of dying? How can we clarify the nature of life after death?

It is easier for people to come with many others. To visit a family alone during the shiva is much more difficult, for what can one say. How can one comfort? There are people who talk about one thing and another. They try to avert our minds from our grief...

Yes, he is still alive -- it is true -- but not here, with us. How we miss him. We want to feel him, kiss him, embrace him -- physically. Why was he not allowed to live here any longer?

Yet his words did not penetrate. I had no feelings left. I could not think straight. We just sat there, my wife and I, with only one thought: Boruch... Boruch... Why...? Why...?

Thursday night, June 10, the eve of 13 Sivan Work ran late tonight. At a meeting with the other members of the Amstelveen committee, we prepared the material for the next issue of Baderech, the periodical of the Jewish community of Amsterdam-Amstelveen. W...