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WHAT GOOD FROM TRAGEDY? This is Saturday November 29, 2008. Last night I had dinner with Rabbi Berkowitz at his home which is a Chabad House. It is located in Huntington Beach, California. We talked about many things. One of the things we talked about during our study following dinner was of course the massacre in Mumbai, India. As it turns out Rabbi Berkowitz had dinner the week before with Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg who was so brutally murdered. Now this made for a dilemma. We were all saddened by the senseless loss of life, most especially of a Rabbi, a learned man and his wife. In Judaism a Rabbi and his wife are considered one unit. Like two sides of the same coin. Rabbi Berkowitz was especially saddened by the loss of a friend and a colleague. At the same time we were saddened, we were at Shabbat at which time we are commanded to be joyful as an act of Praise Hashem (the Lord) and in fact on Shabbat Jews are prohibited sadness. So our little gathering did the only thing we could, we had a discussion as to what good thing we should celebrate from this horrible, senseless bloodletting at the hands of vile criminals who only speak the language of violence? As I write this I have tears in my eyes and I wish to share with all of my friends the good thing we determined that will come from this tragedy: The Lubavitch Rabbis of the Chabad Movement will be known to many more people as good souls who seek to teach the lessons of the Torah and to teach Hebrew to all who care to learn. They were in India to teach Hebrew, Torah and mitzvah (the 613 commandments to perform good deeds) to the 10,000 or so Jewish people who have lived in India for a few thousand years. All of the people of the World, who listened to radio, watched television, followed the events on the Internet or read newspaper or magazine articles about this tragedy will now know about Chabad and their good works. Daiyanu. Shim Shalom. Hashem grant us peace, thy most precious gift. Let Israel be the bringer of peace to all the nations of the Earth. |
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11/29/2008 5:04 pm |
my deepest condolences
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11/29/2008 7:41 pm |
After death, those who do good deeds will be closer to God, those that commit acts of brutally and bring sorrow and shame will be the furtherest... All of the animals directly involved in this massacre are dead except one and I hope he wishes he was real soon....
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11/29/2008 8:26 pm |
Sholem Aleykham my friend, indeed the Shabbat dinner ceremony is a time for joy. from the candle lighting to the breaking of the Challah bread putting your grief aside must have been quite an effort. My heart goes out to the Rabbi and you Ricky. May God comfort you both......Shalom. "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind."....T. Paine
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11/29/2008 10:01 pm |
Rick: I'm unable to find the 'right' words to express my feelings. I'll try, with this: Thank you for posting this blog-message. No exaggeration, I feel this is The Best you've written and posted in all the time I've been a member here at sff. Elle
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11/30/2008 5:45 am |
Ricky, words cant describe how I felt as I watched the massacre unfold and when they got to the Jewish House I wondered if anyone would survive as they didnt seem to have any means of escape. Shooting down children shows what they are really like and how cut off they seem to be from feelings of any sort. It was a terrible few days and very frightening. My condolences.
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11/30/2008 2:26 pm |
Sholem Aleykham my friend, indeed the Shabbat dinner ceremony is a time for joy. from the candle lighting to the breaking of the Challah bread putting your grief aside must have been quite an effort. My heart goes out to the Rabbi and you Ricky. May God comfort you both......Shalom.
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11/30/2008 2:27 pm |
Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts.
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Ricky, I hesitated responding in any way to your blog mostly because my exposure to the Jewish religion has been very limited in my life. After reading about how Jews were targeted amd the extent of the torture to them, particularly, I can't feel any worse for all that share brotherhood. IF the hindus have it right about karma...after a few thousand years of atrocities towards mankind I bet they have quite a "what goes around" coming back to them...I hope I live to see them get theirs... I wish you and all the loved ones of the victims peace in their hearts and minds... Any Fool Can Criticize and Complain...and Most Do...
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12/1/2008 11:28 am |
No Polish Catholics were killed, so I don't care. As long as my tribe doesn't suffer, I pay no attention to these things.
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12/2/2008 7:06 am |
It baffles you? Fine, I will explain. Almost 200 people die, many wounded, the majority of them resident locals. Who do we and the media focus on? Westerners, and particularly ones from our own countries. The US media covers Americans, the Canadian media Canadians, and so on. Could we not get away from our tribal loyalties and be aware of all humanity?
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12/3/2008 12:15 pm |
It baffles you? Fine, I will explain. Almost 200 people die, many wounded, the majority of them resident locals. Who do we and the media focus on? Westerners, and particularly ones from our own countries. The US media covers Americans, the Canadian media Canadians, and so on. Could we not get away from our tribal loyalties and be aware of all humanity? - but I was not a communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, - but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, - but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me" Pastor Martin Niemoller
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