The
horrific murders of people at prayer that recently occurred in Jerusalem raises
many more questions than answers. The responses to it were varied. CNN saw in
it that Israeli police killed two Palestinians. Israeli politicians made their
usual vapid comments, promises and revenge statements, all of which in the past
have led nowhere. Learned rabbis and savants have attempted the futile task of
reading God’s mind, so to speak, to explain what cannot be explained. Redoubled
efforts at greater acts of charity and more meaningful prayer services are
undoubtedly noble goals but are hardly words and actions of comfort,
consolation or explanation. The Torah’s response to inexplicable tragedy is
recorded for us in the narrative regarding the death of the sons of Aaron. That
response is silence – acceptance of God’s will. It also teaches us that the
holy and innocent, people of goodness and erudition, compassion and service to
others, are often singled out to be victims of inexplicable tragedy. I will not
attempt to explain the causes of these murders. That mystery should be allowed
to be shrouded in silence. Only those of faith have the ability to remain
silent as to the causes of tragedy. But silence is a more satisfying response
than is false certainty and banality.
What
can be assessed is the reaction to this massacre of innocents. In Gaza and the
West Bank there were great public celebrations. This is the product of decades
of incitement, hatred, mind-washing and calculated strategy. Pious declarations
about making peace with enemies or having partners amongst the Palestinian
Authority for a legitimate settlement of the struggle ring ever more hollow in
light of the violence continually perpetrated against Israelis. The shameful
conduct of Europe and the UN, the academic elites, the liberal media and the
others who always know what is better for us than we do, all are part of the
atmosphere that breeds such violence. The public and governmental anti-Semitism
that permeated Europe in the nineteenth century created the conditions for the
Holocaust of the twentieth century. The blind acceptance by the world’s
intelligentsia of Marxism helped create Stalin’s gulag, allowing to the murder
of millions. Islamic terror can only be stopped by calling it by its correct
name, identifying its perpetrators and supporters and by stopping confusing the
victims with the criminals. As long as we search for causes and excuses for
murder, violence and unremitted hatred, for moral equivalency and no-fault
mindsets, there will be little hope that this tragic incident will be the last
one of its kind.
Jews
have to raise their voices in support of other Jews. Jews have to raise their
voices in support of the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace as a
Jewish state. Jews have to continue to pray. Jews have to continue to insist on
their rights and rites. No circumcision, no ritual slaughter, no public display
of Judaism – all of these European parliamentary laws are anti-Semitism at its
sugar coated worst and create the climate that eventually kills Jews at prayer.
All of Jewish history proves this pattern to be true.
We
have much to pray for. May the Lord hear our prayers and spare us any further
tragedies of this type.
