Saturday, November 29, 2008

Baruch Dayan HaEmet*

(Posted Motzai Shabbos)
* The title of this post means "Blessed is (G-d) the true Judge" and is the phrase Orthodox Jews say upon hearing of a death.

This post is a notable departure from my usual posts but the events in Mumbai, India have affected me greatly.

Rabbi Gavriel and Rivki Holzberg, Chabad emissaries to Mumbai, have been brutally murdered along with other American and Israeli Jews in their Chabad House (a building which housed their home, a synagogue, community centre and drug prevention programs).

Miraculously, their 2 year old son escaped from the building during the seige with his Hindu nanny and has been reunited with both sets of grandparents who flew to India from their homes in Brooklyn and Afula.

Terror acts like this always seem cruel and senseless, particularly when you consider that this young couple has spent the past 5 years serving 3 free meals per day for up to 50 people at a time, preparing all their food from scratch because there was no kosher food available to buy.

I didn't post the other day during the crisis because I was checking for news updates online and saying Tehillim [reading Psalms]. My heart just goes out to that little boy whose birthday will forever be tied to the tragic deaths of his parents (he turned 2 in the middle of the crisis).

Global financial meltdowns, terror activities increasing, retail workers being crushed by Black Friday shoppers. Has our world gone (totally) insane?

1 comment:

Grace. said...

I have no idea how to respond to either tragedy. Both are completely senseless. A man should die because others wanted a cheap flatscreen TV? People should be murdered and children left orphaned because someone didn't like their religion or their nationality? It IS scary.