I'm not here to ask questions or to look for answers. I'm not here to point fingers or to place blame at anybody's feet. Unlike most tragedies where a car spins out of control on a rainy night you can't even point to the bald tires on the old clunker, or to the fact that a young bachur shouldn't be driving in the country until he's 46 years old... I'm old enough to remember many, many tragedies, r"l, but never do I remember such a tragedy, and I doubt many of you do. We're all at a loss for words here. There are no words. You hug your kids and you tell them you love them, but you're STILL hesitant to tell them about the existence of evil in our little insular world! You don't want them to have to be concerned about bad people, you want them to be happy and carefree for as long as they can! I wasn't able to attend the levaya, and I have yet to hear a recording of it, I've only seen them, (I'm at a non-speaker, non-Hebrew computer) but I'd bet none of the maspidim did the usual routine of blaming the women, etc., which shows us how we have no idea what to do or say, all we can do is cry!
NYT/Reuters Photo
As far as lessons we can learn from this;
We frum Jews are programmed to want to be better. We realize the errs of our ways and we always want to improve, no matter the situation. This is the case not just when tragedy strikes, r"l - I mean this every single day. You have a few minutes where you think about your day and you realize that you could've done a lot more. When a tragedy of these proportions happens, even more so. What can I say? I don't think this we've been so terrible that this awful murder needed to happen!! Yiddishe kinder zennen voyl un gut! What more can one say?!
וידם אהרן.
וידם אהרן.
"mah nomar u'mah nedaber...."
ReplyDeleteThis post hits the nail on the head. That is exactly what I said to a chaver regarding this tragedy. None of us remember such a maaseh, especially @ the hands of one of our own. Hafleh v'felleh! I wonder how many times in the history of k'lal Yisroel such a maaseh occurred.
The crazy sequences of events:
1. the note excusing him from the bus.
2. everything caught on camera.
3. he punkt bumps into this guy.
4. The guy shows up to work the next day and davens and says tehillim for Leiby Z"L H"YD.
MAH NOMAR!!!!!!!!!!!
A reporter commented that the parents don't know all of the details. They don't read papers or Internet.
Mamash Ehrliche Chissudishe Yidden!
R"L, the level we are sinking to!
Rabbi Eisenberger spoke wonderful!. He mentioned that Hashem got beautiful heartfelt Tefillos from Am Yisroel and the Achdus and the V'ohavto Le'racho Komochucha that everyone showed and we should continue all this.. he said everyone should make an effort at least one tefillah of the day should be done properly with Kavannah etc...
ReplyDeleteI would like to appeal to all rabbonim, principals, melamdim etc to warn the public ( and not only, but foremost children ) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES to hitch rides or to offer rides., as is the practice in frum neighborhoods, especially in E. Yisroel and in the country.
ReplyDeleteYou don't know into who's car you are getting or whom you let into your car.
How does one wrap one's brains around the fact that the guy is Mi'Zera Avrom Yitzchok Yaakov?
ReplyDeleteHe's not the first Jew-on-Jew Avaryan, of course, but ......
Hershel,
ReplyDeletewhat a scene Wednesday night!
Ga'uh Kal Ha'am Bi'Bichiya, MAMASH!!!
Can't describe it.
30 or so months after Mumbai...howe long since Ithamar....incredible.
I thought in 50 years I've seen and heard it all...I was wrong!
Eisenberger hat geret tsum zach...mir haban gezen elokus b'hisgalus (I paraphrase)!!
No way anyone can rationalize the billion to one odds of this occurring (first day walking home, walks DIRECTLY into the path of all people in the UNIVERSE, this guy, at the PRECISE time frame (10 minutes earlier or later and it doesn't happen).
one can't help but feel like a speck of dust on the canvas of creation!
הירשל ציג says:
ReplyDelete“What more can one say?! VaYidom Aharon.”
On VaYidom Aharon it said: that 'he had what to say but he didn't say it..! (not what more can one say) just a thought.
BelzFinAMool said... “the guy is Mi'Zera Avrom Yitzchok Yaakov?”
ReplyDeleteshamu mamzer he or bnei nidu he c”v.. or he lost his status as a yid by watching to many videos.. on how to butcher a nefesh adam! (the average yid has a hard time butchering a chicken)
Horav Eisenberger's hesped was phenomenal. He had the daunting task of tackling the mystery of our Creator's plan or at least giving us a pair of eyes to peer into the unknown.
ReplyDeleteThe day after the levaya, I spoke to a Boyaner chosid and we talked about the fathers hesped ' thanking der Aibeshter for the gift that lasted nine years.' The chusids thoughts were 'nuhr a chassidishe yid volt gekent redden azoi'.
Absolutely true.
anon 11:05,
ReplyDeleteyou shouldn't write like that. particularly on a chabad website. And you depriving yourself of an opportunity to learn. He was, seemingly, not a ben nidda and af al pi ken he did this.
Michoel
I was at the levaya.
ReplyDeleteIt was a true expression of achdus, with yidden from all kreizen.
One of the maspidim,maybe R'Eisenberger, brought out that a "nes" is Hashem showing a clear intervention in nature.A clear sign from Hashem.In this case everything went against what was planned.The child, though living in BP all his life and rehearsing the way beforehand, took the wrong route.Pinkt he asked the only person in Gantz Boro Park (or the world)who would eventually do such a terrible deed.And if that's not enough, he even waited for 7 minutes outside the dentists office without asking anybody else for help.
Just an interesting note:Apparently the person who "cracked" the case was the melameds father, R'German, who was the fellow who managed to figure out that the security cameras would help track the child down.It was German, not the cops who got the footage from Dahill and 45 st ,where the murderer met the child.
Another point:The murderer has been accused of being a pedophile and molester, and lying on the confession.I really don't know where the proof is.Apparently there is no history of him molesting kids.Additionally, though the cops claim that he may have murdered the child on the first day, I see no reason to not believe the confession, that he took the child to Monsey, brought him back to his house and actually planned on bringing him home, before he realized what trouble he was in.Then he panicked and committed murder.This is not a "limud zechus" mind you, I really don't think that there was premeditated murder in his mind.Obviously the fellow has no "real" emotions to be able to kill a child and proceed to dismember him.This would fit the profile of an emotionally disturbed fellow, with quite low intelligence, from an unhappy childhood, with very little social life.
I really think the current campaign of frimmeh molestors everywhere is grossly exaggerated and people are panicking, not realizing that not everybody, or in reality, there are very few molesters BUT also there are plain old fashioned meshiguem, who, though may not have any sexual interest, are even more dangerous
קוק אויף א ריכטיגן הספד:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ivelt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=14456
What are the chances of little Leiby walking down that exact street and of all the thousands םכ people of Boro Park to just meet up with that murderer and ask him for directions?
ReplyDeleteLook at the clip. He's walking to his rendezvous with death. The malach hamoves was leading him.
As you say, מה נאמר? It's a wake up call to תשובה.
Anonymous 11:59. You don't know what you're talking about. Unfortunately, I've heard the same words from more than one Litvak who's lost a child. השם ישמרנו.
ReplyDeleteIt is Irrelevant but I need to Share it The Holtzbergs and the Kletzkys are both REAL YERUSHALMI families what is strange is their Grandparents both lived in the same house on Rechov Bal Hatanya in Meah Shearim
ReplyDeleteachdus shmachdus. i cant stand that every time theres a tzoroh everyone screams achdus. genug with the achdus. we shouldnt need achdus as we are all one. a tzoroh should not have to cause achdus.
ReplyDeletewe must scream to the rbs"o genug with the golus and ad mosai. how much can yidden take.
but i cant stand all these articles about how much achdus in the search. its almost as if it was worth it. go tell that to the parents. its absurd.
the Lubavitcher Rebbe Zt"L said in certain times of great incomprehensible tragic events that we must scream to the aibishter and demand that its enough golus.
(i dont mean to begin a discussion of whether one may demand of the eibishter etc. if its good enough for a manhig as the LR then its good enough for us simpletons. i am aware that when harav leibel groner screamed by mumbai there were reshoim petz who came out with pashkvilim against him and in effect against the LR....)
Something has got to be done to poshut shake the yiddishe velt and bring moshiach. its enough!!!
someone told me levy aron was adopted and he was born non jewish and his parents were megayir him
ReplyDeleteIam sorry for the parents, but you know what there is out their shidduchim crisis, parnossa crisis which nobody gives a damm about
ReplyDeleteR'Abba Dunner was nifter in London.
ReplyDeleteI want to remind that you said nasty uncalled things about the man.
You are swine.
Now is the time to apologize
"SWINE"
ReplyDeleteyou can קוש מיר אין תחת
mamzer ben HaNidah, Nidah bas Mamzeres , converted, psychotic,Veis Ich Vus.
ReplyDeleteI dont envy those who live in a world with such simple answers.
VeHudreh Kushye Le'Duchtai, How do you wrap your brains around the fact that this guy is MiZera Avrum Yitzchok Yaakov
BelzFinAMool said..."VeHudreh Kushye Le'Duchtai"
ReplyDeleteQ.#2 how do u understand when the torah says 'v'loh suki eschem..' yet 90%+ of yiden living in israel desecrate the holy land daily with their t'avois! and the beshefer tolerates it? the answer is in the kinus! ...the 900 years that god tolerated us before the destruction came (c"v) he is patient and waits for tshuvah.. (even from todays belzers)
leiby`s rebbi avrumi german said "leiby is no more lost - we are now so lost". oh how true this statement is.
ReplyDeleteleiby`s rebbi avrumi german said "leiby is no more lost - we are now so lost". oh how true this statement is.
ReplyDeletethis achser forced leiby to watch TV the last hours of his life, so says the butcher, he might have made him watch something else, who knows what... ohy gevald! this holy pure neshumah.
ReplyDeleteראו מה בין בני לבן חמי
ReplyDeleteNo kashes, no taynehs, no muning the Eibeshter. Contrast that with the statements post Mumbai. Just imagine the kidush hashem had statements, about the tragedy in Mubai been made along the same lines...
Takeh, an emiseh chasidishe yid.
it's very easy not to have taynes if you don't believe in the first place, or if it's all lip service.....................
ReplyDeleteBut it's nice to see that this is what you have in mind at a time like this. Typical rishus
hirshel said: קוש מיר אין תחת
ReplyDeletesometimes there is know other answer even hirshel knows taht, he just forgets it when "I" anon wants to use it!
Anon
ReplyDelete"No kashes, no taynehs, no muning the Eibeshter. Contrast that with the statements post Mumbai. Just imagine the kidush hashem had statements, about the tragedy in Mubai been made along the same lines..."
did u see the Gemorah in Sanhedrin regarding to last weeks parsha with Pinchas the Kanoi who argued to hashem that the killing of the 24,000 is not proportional with the sin...
This tragic event has made an impression on the mind of every human being. We are shocked and saddened to the core, there are no words to describe our feelings.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is time to make an honest cheshbon hanefesh, one that is significantly different than any other in the past.
YES! We became very accustomed to this "holier-than-thou" attitude.
My derech is holier than yours,
My peyos is longer than yours,
My Tzizis is larger than yours,
My minhogim are more authentic than yours,
My shiurim are deeper than yours,
My Rebbe, My Rosh Yeshiva, My Shul, My son-in law, My shtreimel, My frock, My house, My, my, my, my … VS. yours, yours, yours.
Upon meeting another yid we very rarely forget to size up that individual in the first 10 seconds, Litvish or Chassidish? Chushuv or simpleton?, Lamden or Baal Habos? Rich or shnorrer? This “kreis” or the other? Buys the Yated or the Jewish Press? Eats OU or Yoshon? Only “fish” or even franks? Learns daf yomi or R’ Chaim? Avigdor Miller or Moonies?, forget about Satmar, Belz,Lubavitch, Chaim Berlin,MO,FFB,BT, Lakewood…Un-affiliated… all this in an amazing few short seconds at an endless amount of occasions.
This attitude clearly led to the recent terrible event of somebody setting another yid on fire while attempting to burn down a house while a yiddishe family was asleep inside for no other reason than, MY SHUL not yours, and the reaction was more of ... again ... see! We are better than them… and an answer from the “other” side oh.. sob.. “this is not OUR derech”.
G-d has smacked us right on our cheeks - and how! – clearly saying, it is time to fess up or I will do things that will bring you to your senses realizing that it is US!! Klall Yisroel under one G-d. It is time to make a complete reversal of our perception of torah umitzvos. WE are all in it together, WE appreciate each other’s unique ways, WE no more try to outdo each other begashmius and even beruchnius, rather help and admire one another. May we merit to see this speedily.
How did these guys escape from VIN/YWN/Matzav land?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous from jewland said...
this achser forced leiby to watch TV the last hours of his life, so says the butcher, he might have made him watch something else, who knows what... ohy gevald! this holy pure neshumah.
Monday, July 18, 2011 10:36:00 AM
Anonymous said...
BelzFinAMool said..."VeHudreh Kushye Le'Duchtai"
Q.#2 how do u understand when the torah says 'v'loh suki eschem..' yet 90%+ of yiden living in israel desecrate the holy land daily with their t'avois! and the beshefer tolerates it? the answer is in the kinus! ...the 900 years that god tolerated us before the destruction came (c"v) he is patient and waits for tshuvah.. (even from todays belzers)
Anonymous said...
ראו מה בין בני לבן חמי
No kashes, no taynehs, no muning the Eibeshter. Contrast that with the statements post Mumbai. Just imagine the kidush hashem had statements, about the tragedy in Mubai been made along the same lines...
Takeh, an emiseh chasidishe yid.
Monday, July 18, 2011 10:56:00 AM
vin news stated that this murder gave leiby some cd`s to watch, one of the youtube clips they said it was TV. but does it make a difference what this minevil gave him to watch???
ReplyDeleteFed Up In Peoria? MOVE!
ReplyDeleteI heard that last Shabos the Rabonim rushed to the podium for their their Sermons and started to give their Boich Sevoras, why it happened.
ReplyDeleteHirshel, we should start to collect a list of all the reasons.
I heard the following few reasons,
It is because we support Politicians that voted for the equal marriage law
Reb Chaim Flohr of Monsey
Because of the existence of new technologies as internet
Reb Aron Titelbaum of KJ
Hashem wanted to show the world that Jews are also Murders not only the Arabs
Rabbi MB Beck of Monsey
They should have been more creative it happened becasue some people talk during davening...
ReplyDeleteForgot to add
ReplyDeleteIt happened because of the Great 3 Rosh Yeshivahs that died
Rav Shlezinger of Monsey
Is their something peculiar in the Upstate NY water?
Can the Tzig do some water sampling?
the monster went to new square (for wedding), "mutzo meen es meenoi", new square is the place were it started first, a jew trying to burn a family at 3am.
ReplyDeleteOriginally posted elswhere. This is a more fitting place
ReplyDeleteLekoved shivo osor btamuz
The nigun katarina vintage Chabad. Chizuk in tzipiye liyshu'o. Mhotos mayle givezn fun di tume
Katarina moladitza podye soday ( not sure of exact translation or if I want to)
Kata idoch kittes un rinne meyntdoch gizayng un az moshiach vet kummen veln zayn kittes fun gizayng un mir veln zingen alle in eynem mit greys kavonne unmit greys Hislayves: katarina moladitza etc
Mole meyntdoch ful un ditze meyntdoch freyd un az moshiach vet kummen veln alle Idn zayn ful mit freyd un az moshiach kummen veln zayn kittes etc
Podye menyntoch oysleyzun un Soday idoch Kavyochl Aleyn un aMoshiach vet kummen vet unz oyslazun Kavyochl aleyn un az etc
A shame I can't share the tune. Btw this niggun zingtzach gornit obber oy zogt er zach!
'It happened because of the Great 3 Rosh Yeshivahs that died
ReplyDeleteRav Shlezinger of Monsey'
is that the Schlesinger that signed on the letter describing what a wonderful fellow Weingarten is (you know, the guy that traveled around the globe to rape his daughters)?
Just wanted to make sure.
Oh, Hirshel, reported on another site (I peek once in a while) Aron was a guest at the Kletzky Zeide's shabbos table. more than once.
BPHOUND
ReplyDelete"is that the Schlesinger that signed on the letter describing what a wonderful fellow Weingarten is (you know, the guy that traveled around the globe to rape his daughters)?"
I personal agree with the Rabonim on the innocence of Wiengarten, I know he is a xtreme fanatic idiot, but did not rape
bphound
ReplyDelete"Aron was a guest at the Kletzky Zeide's shabbos table. more than once."
reminds of the Monster Rosenberg from the infamous Failed Messiah, who worked overtime to help in the Mesira on Shulem Rubashkin, he also ate for years shabos at the Rubashkin table
As for what lesson could be taken from it, it is too early. But surely one can wonder why does it take tragedy to bring everybody together. I don't think in false un-achievable Utopian achdus, and looking and hoping for that is a downer.
ReplyDeleteBut what we could achieve is a modicum of derech eretz to our opponents in business, family or religion. Recognizing the value of the other side, as being a legitimate opponent. That is the true meaning of achdus, in my eyes.
In support of my point I will point to an halacha in Hilchos Kibud Av ve'eim; if one's father takes his 'arneke' his wallet, and throws it in the sea, he is not to confront his father. He should rather let him throw his money away. But the Sha"ch stipulates that he is allowed to call his father to din torah.
In today's world if somebody confronts his parents that would be normal family life. But if it gets out, that he called them to Beis din then the daas balhabayis will say; "what chutzpa"
But in reality the Shach is talking about conflict 'resolution' and confrontation is about war.
We need to find ways to protest the war in Satmar, Viznitz, Seret Viznitz, Gur, Klausenburg, Ponevezh, Belz Machnovke, Bobov ...the list is endless.
I wish we could organize a "flash" crowd meet.
Let's say Lee cor BQE.
3:00 AM yes for effect purposes.
And all we are going to do is: at exact time we will turn to each other and say:
לע"נ יהודא בן נחמן
הרינו מקבל עלי עול מלכות שמים באהבה
שמע ישראל....
הרינו מקבל עלי מצות עשה של ואהבת לרעיך כמוך
שלום עליכם ר' איד
and go home.
If we can get a nice big crowd it will push forward the cry from our deepest yearnings to those in power who are pushing all this machlokes among us.
imagine every week or month a mysterious flash crowd arrives in the dead of night just to say 'hello' to the next person and leave, and if the crowd grows by the week or month, it will shock the powers that be?
Have I lost my mind in grief?
Say You
Yosef 718
Rabbi Lieff:
ReplyDeleteLeiby was a korban for us and his grandfather who he was named for always mourned that he didn't give his life for kiddush Hashem during the war
Rabbi Lieff - Chai Lifeline - Flatbush @ 1:03:45
http://video.chailifeline.org/video/chailifelinesymposium-flat.mp3
No kashes, no taynehs, no muning the Eibeshter.
ReplyDeleteContrast that with the statements post Mumbai. Just imagine the kidush hashem had statements, about the tragedy in Mumbai been made along the same lines..."
Why no 'moning" by the Ribono shel Olom? Sefer Tehillim af shrit un trit is full of asking why reshoim prosper and tzaddikim suffer?Maybe your tzaddikim in BP and Lakewood will suggest that people refrain from saying Tehillim as it is a dangerous book?You know better than Dovid Melech Yisroel?Who are you to say what is or isn't a kiddush hashem?
ReplyDeleteto Sandor's brother ...
ReplyDeleteyou can talk nicely TO hashem painfully
but you shall not pain hashem by not talking nicely about him
we have to start leining (reading) from the sefer torah of the holy sanz`er rav the divrei chaim more often.
ReplyDeletewe have to start leining (reading) from the sefer torah of the holy sanz`er rav the divrei chaim more often.
ReplyDeleteTo"I Second that"-Answer my question about Sefer Tehillim-there are endless taynes to the Ribbono shel Olem about why he doesn't help the righteous and "stands from afar."Who are you to tell me about pain for Hashem? What a chutzpah!And who are you to tell the families of the Mumbai kedoshim what is right and what is wrong?And please talk nicely about Hashem.Otherwise the sheyne yidn in Bklyn will have to write about you in Mispacha magazine.
ReplyDelete"The chusids thoughts were 'nuhr a chassidishe yid volt gekent redden azoi'."
ReplyDeleteNarishkeit. Ich ken gohr a sach litvakes vos hobin azoi geredt by zeyeir presendlicheh umglicking oichet.
To Sandors Brother,
ReplyDeleteI know personally one family of the Mumbai tragedy that thanked Hashem in public for the misfortune that had befallen them, what they said to Hashem in private i don't know,
and so did the Kletzky Family and all Jews who believe in the greatness of the all mighty .
Hashem is suffering together with every yid he does not need to be reminded ,
DEMANDING from him in public to modify his behavior is not polite and very Unjewish ,pleading and beseeching with Humility is the correct way of tefila
To anonymous 5:56 and 9:14 :
ReplyDelete"The chusids thoughts were 'nuhr a chassidishe yid volt gekent redden azoi'."
Narishkeit. Ich ken gohr a sach litvakes vos hobin azoi geredt by zeyeir presendlicheh umglicking oichet.
Shoiteh shekomoischo !!
'Ich ken gohr a sach' ??!!
In di letzeteh zechtzik yuhr ....kenst nuch a zah fahl...un a zah gesheinish ??
It has been at least 3 generations since a calamity of such magnitude occurred
( notwithstanding illness, fatal accidents or Mid East terror ).
Religious Jew on jew murder, on a child, involving dismemberment ?
And who was bichlal talking about 'prezenleche umglicken'....we are discussing this case and its magnitude...and the tziduk hadin by this chasidishe family...
Obviously you're a liar...but because you wanted to prove that Litvaks 'kennen oichet' you would blatantly make a foolish statement and an absolute lie...and in public !
unless you are living in a third world country, and make daily visits to families with tragedies, can you say ' Iche kehn a sach' ??
It is laughable and sad....
Hashem is not interested in "yes" men.
ReplyDeleteWe are given bechirah and brains
He is not interetsed in self serving men who justify bad things especially when it happens to others, men who seek to justify His actions and then feel very good and frum when doing so.After all they are on G-D's defense team .(Why does G-D need lawyers ?)Of course when G-D acts in a manner that is not in step with their hashkafah (Creation of a Jewish state and Entebbe Miracle etc), these same guys come up with the concept of Maase Satan, well tell me could these current incidents also not be explained by the 2 reshuyoth theory so well formulated by a certain chug and rav in regards to Hashem's hand in the creation and maintainance of Israel.
To borrow language from a person not in our camp , he wants us to wrestle with Him , to understand Him , to confront Him , to challenge Him , like Avrohom Avinu , like Reb Levi Yitzchk of Berdichev like the last Koshnitzer Rebbe Reb Areleh(Der Vilde) and a whole host of Chassidic rebbeim. Only by doing this do we acknowledge a Living G-D invovled in the world not some BEING whom we need to justify.
Take a look at the story of the last Strizover rebbe Reb Nechemiahle (a close mekurov of the Minchas Elozor) who in the darkest days of the Holocaust screamed at a frume Jew in the Ghetto who sought to justify what was happening. The Rebbe said the Jews are not sinners, NOTHING JUSTIFIES this.
Alas todays gedolim are trained like lawyers and act like lawyers for hakadosh Baruch Hu as if HE needs this guys to defend him.I don't know why anything happens and you know what these Rabbis who know 500 more blatt shass with Rashi and Tosefoth , than I do also don't have a clue .
About the Fogels but timely here to
ReplyDeletePart one
"Dear G-d,
It’s been a while. How are You?
Though You didn’t ask, let me share with You how we are. Bluntly put: We’re not doing so well down here.
Last Friday night – as You surely know – a beautiful family was butchered in cold blood. A father, mother and their three children. Just to confirm that You get their names and ages right, to assure them their box seats in heaven, here is the exact spelling of their names: Udi Fogel, 36. Ruth Fogel, 35. Yoav Fogel, 11. Elad Fogel, 4. Hadas Fogel, 3 months.
Yes, You read that right, 3 months old… Throats slashed – all of them. What did they do wrong? They were sleeping in their home in the Promised Land, on a Friday night, after praying Shabbat services and eating the Shabbat meal, reciting blessings and singing Your praises.
Yes, indeed: This happened on Shabbat. On Your Shabbat. And in Your Holy Land. The land that Your eyes “watch from the beginning of the year till the end of the year.”
In Japan, one of Your “natural disasters” – in the guise of an earthquake and tsunami – devastated an entire region, leaving over 25,000 dead, and millions displaced. (Our insurance policies call these “natural disasters” “acts of G-d”– so don’t think You’re off the hook and have been forgotten; all joking aside, when it comes to saving money our insurance companies blame stuff on You, though they don’t necessarily give You the credit when things work out alright).
These two brazen tragedies were publicized, leaving us all reeling, shaken to the core. But surely there were many more tragedies – which You, if anyone, know about more of than all of us – that did not make headlines. How many people are suffering as we speak? Only You know.
Bottom line, things are not very pretty on Earth.
Before anyone tries waxing philosophical, let me acknowledge that I am quite aware that the holiday of Purim is quickly approaching. And we know that Purim is all about Your concealed presence and Your hidden plans. Your name is therefore never mentioned in the entire Megillah, indicating Your behind the scenes orchestration.
We also know that the name of our Purim heroine, Esther, is rooted in the Biblical verse “And I will surely hide (haster astir) My face from you” (Chulin 139b).
We know all this and more.
But pray tell: Did You really have to hide Your face to the extent of allowing, for G-d’s sake, an infant’s throat to be slit??!!
Your hidden face doesn’t get more hidden than when that inhuman butcher dug his knife into the chests and slit the throats of these innocent victims…
You asked us to remember - Zachor - what Amalek did to us. To remember and never to forget. We remember all to well. This Shabbos we will remember yet again. But now, with the latest blood-drenched bodies in Itamar, we don't need a reminder to remember; their blood cries out to us. It's hard to forget what you see with your own eyes.
Our question to You is whether You remember? You also obligated Yourself to fulfill every command You gave us. Do You remember even as your face is shrouded and concealed? Do you remember us?...
Part two
ReplyDeleteDennis Prager wrote a heart-wrenching piece, The Other Tsunami, on what type of monster it takes to brutally slaughter children. How unnatural it is for a human being to kill an innocent child, and how much “training” and “education” is necessary to lose any semblance of compassion toward pure children. His chilling words capture the brutal reality of this and other attacks on Jews, and there is no need for me to reiterate it here.
However, what I would like to know, dear G-d, is how You see it? I understand that Your beautiful face is concealed. But how concealed can You get? How much will You tolerate and how concealed will You allow Yourself to become?
Was the Holocaust not enough concealment?
And we would like to know what it’s like to see all this pain from behind Your hidden face?
I also know that in the Purim Megillah You have already planted a tailored response to this and any other tragedy: Life is filled with surprising twists and turns. Just as our lives can turn, in a blink, from normalcy to disaster, one moment the Jews were living in peace, and a moment later, a decree was issued to annihilate the entire Jewish nation, they can also turn as quickly the other way around, from catastrophe to joy.
Purim’s essential message is one of total reversal of fortune – v’nahafoch hu (Esther 9:1), ha'chodesh asher ne'hepach lo'hem (9:22) – the month had been transformed for them from grief to joy, from mourning to a festive day.
Purim is a story of surprises. What you see is not what you get. Everything is turned inside out and outside in, upside down and down side up. We therefore understand that despite the recent calamities, we surely will be redeemed, and our grief and mourning – for the Fogel family – will turn into joy.
We know all this too well. As Jews we have seen the abyss many times, and… survived.
But did we really need yet another slaughter of a pure family?!…
How much grief and mourning will it take to show us that things can be transformed to celebration?
We surely also appreciate all Your blessings, all the gifts that You bestow upon us daily. We are deeply grateful. But that does not compensate for the suffering some of us endure. And indeed, You instructed us to cry out and do whatever we can for those in pain. You created us in a way that our hearts break when we suffer and see others suffer.
We stand in awe and shudder before Your seemingly infinite capacity at concealment…
But with all the profound mystery of Your concealment (sod ha’tzimtzum they call it), and all the secrets behind Your greater plan – will we ever get some respite?!
How does a concealed face look at a baby bleeding to death???
How does it feel from behind the veil? From behind the “hastir astir” (Esther) of your face?
It must be very lonely behind the mask…
What does it look like from “behind the curtain” and the “doors of perception”?
I know You can see it from our perspective as well. And I know that You shed tears when we do. But at the end of the day, You also have the advantage of seeing it from Your vantage point. And we don’t.
That makes all the difference.
Help us out here a bit. We sorely need it.
We have lived in the dark long enough. It’s high time to take off Your mask and cloak, and show us Your face. As You Yourself promised: “No longer shall your Teacher hide Himself behind robe and garment, but your eyes will behold Your Teacher” (Isaiah 30:20), “for they shall see eye to eye” (Isaiah 52:8
I Second that 9:24:"DEMANDING from him in public to modify his behavior is not polite and very Unjewish"-Why then did Moshe Rabbenu say "mecheini no misifrecho"after the chet haegel?Isn't that demanding that Hashem modify his behavior?This was nothing less than an ultimatum. Was Moshe Rabbeinu ch'v un Jewish?And it was in public because it is part of TorasMoshe which is read and learnt by Jews everywhere.This is part of revealed law not hidden law.
ReplyDeleteto sandors brother
ReplyDeleteit was revealed to us what Moshe Raya Mehamna spoke privately to hashem
Did you people see the Gemora in Sanhedrin, regarding Pinchas asking Hashem, howcome he killed the 24000 for the sin of adultery, that the sin does not justify the mass killings
ReplyDeleteThe holy Berdichever Ruv quotes this Chazal in his Kedushas Levi, emphasizing that Pinchas the Zealot had both aspects in his personality.
A message from Moishela,a handicapped child
ReplyDeleteyud gimmel Tamuz July 15, 2011 BS"D
A Message to the Frum Yidden in America.First of all I want to offer my deepest condolences to the parents of Leiby z”l and to all Am Yisroel.Leiby z”l was obviously a Korbon, a Korbon Tzibur. He died Al Kiddush Hashem. It’s not so obvious why this terrible murder would beconsidered Kiddush Hashem. But indeed this little Leiby was killed on Kiddush Hashem. His soul was pure and he was killed not by a Goy but by a Jew who was obviously deranged. He died because of our terrible Aveiros. He died in order to draw attention to the fact that we - Am Yisroel - all over the world, but especially in America, have forgotten what it is to be a true Jew. We have strayed in the worst way turning our Yiddishkeit into plastic, turning it away from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Holding on to the tail of the Egel Hazahav and letting ourselves be dragged into the world of Gashmius (materialistic world).
The average frum Jew in America learns Torah, works, wears a beard and payos, davens more or less 3 times a day, eats what is stamped kosher and on the outside at least looks more or less like an observant Jew. However, the truth is that the modern American frum Jew, the so-called frum Jew, is very taken up with gashmius. Many (at least up to just before 2008) lived in opulence; fancy houses, large cars, spectacular vacations etc., discarding important details like Tznius and Teshuva. Now times are much harder. People are suffering more generally and therefore their hearts are more open for change. However, even with all financial difficulties and all the unusual tragedies the frum community continues moving along in the direction ofoblivion; in the direction that the Egel Hazahav is pulling us.
Life of a Jew in America has become superficial and the opposite direction of Yiddeshkeit. We dress our aveiros in tzidkus, but when you scratch the surface of the mitzvos you see that they are really aveiros, and therefore little Leiby was a shock to the frum community. Little Leiby wasn’t killed by an anti-semitic goy, not an Arab, not a Christian, not a Negro not a white, but he was killed by a so called Yid. Our communities are being slaughtered by so called frum Yidden and their lies. We are being taught some kind of twisted version of Yiddishkeit and educating our children in the same Yiddishkeit that is non Jewish. We educate them to be selfish even though we give much tzedokah. We educate them in lack of tznius, even though supposedly Am Yisroel is more tzniusdik then any other Am. We educate them in truth but we really pull them to the lie; the lie being that the gashmius dressed up in Yidishkeit is the truth. But gashmius is the lie and Yiddishkeit is the truth and we must go back to the Yiddishkeit that once was, to the Yiddishekeit of out forefathers the greatest Tzadikim who lived on very little gashmius but on great amounts of Torah and truth and closeness to Hakodosh Boruch Hu. They were pure and modest with true modesty and true purity. The next months will bring upon the world many tremendous tragedies, worst than the last few years. The gashmius for most people will take an even greater fall and the world will become extremely dangerous as it has already become. Wake up Am Yisroel! This is all about you! Leiby is all about you! Search your souls, search your actions see where you are really lacking, change your ways. I don’t know if many of you are even capable of understanding this because you have strayed so far in your basic conceptions of Yiddishkeit that’s it’s hard for me to even visualize your coming back. Take the first step and I am sure Hakodosh Boruch hu will take you by the hand Kavyachol and lead you back to the right way.