Dear Friend,
A few hours ago, we all heard the tragic news from Israel. There are
few words. Only grief. Sadness. Pain. For 18 days, the Jewish world
was so united. We became one family. Our differences and labels of
affiliations were pushed to the side. These three boys united us. They
made us one. Eyal, Gilad and Naftali became our sons and our brothers.
We never met them but they were OURS. We prayed, we cried, we
demanded, we posted - BRING OUR BOYS HOME! It was OUR boys. The power
of this unity deserved a different ending. It deserved a reunion of
the Jewish world with their boys. It deserved dancing and joy at the
Western Wall celebrating their safe return to their new large family,
the family of Klal Yisroel, the Jewish people. Sadly, this was not
meant to be. We are left heartbroken, numb, in grief.
Today, I write as a member of a family that just lost a loved one.
First, we must mourn. There is a need for us to realize that it is
okay to cry and mourn the loss of a loved one, beyond words of
consoling, it is real pain and tears. We lost three children, three
brothers. After the funerals take place, I would recommend that we
each symbolically sit Shiva in some manner, even for a brief moment to
demonstrate that the deep sense of loss and the love we have for these
children and their families. You may want to kindle three memorial
candles for them and keep them lit in your homes for the next day or
two.
It is only after we mourn that we will need to deal with our outrage
at those that committed this heinous crime and at the terrorist
entities that allowed and encouraged three innocent, young Jewish boys
to be mercilessly slaughtered like this. I am certain that in the
hours and days ahead Israel will respond with very strong measures, as
they most certainly should. We will need to be strong and resolute in
our support of Israel. We know that the world media, the UN and the
State Department will use words such as "restraint" and "measure for
measure". The united Jewish family will have to stand strong and give
Israel and the IDF the support they will need and deserve. I will not
delve into this discussion at this time as there will be time for such
discussion at a later date. For now, we mourn.
May G-d comfort the grieving families of the three boys and may they
find a measure of solace in the knowledge that all of world Jewry
mourns with them and acutely feels their pain.
In Sadness,
Rabbi Levi Goldstein
I have included below an article just released by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
In memoriam Eyal, Gilad and Naftali
By: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former Chief rabbi of Great Britain and the
Commonwealth
This past Shabbat we read the parsha of Chukkat with its almost
incomprehensible commandment of the red heifer whose mixed with
"living water" purified those who had been in contact with death so
that they could enter the Mishkan, symbolic home of the glory of God.
Almost incomprehensible but not entirely so.
The mitzvah of the parah adumah, the red heifer, was a protest against
the religions of the ancient world that glorified death. Death for the
Egyptians was the realm of the spirits and the gods. The pyramids were
places where, it was believed, the spirit of the dead Pharaoh ascended
to heaven and joined the immortals.
The single most striking thing about the Torah and Tanakh in general
is its almost total silence on life after death. We believe in it
profoundly. We believe in olam haba (the world to come), Gan Eden
(paradise), and techiyat hametim (the resurrection of the dead). Yet
Tanakh speaks about these things only sparingly and by allusion. Why
so?
Because too intense a focus on heaven is capable of justifying every
kind of evil on earth. There was a time when Jews were burned at the
stake, so their murderers said, in order to save their immortal souls.
Every injustice on earth, every act of violence, even suicide
bombings, can be theoretically defended on the grounds that true
justice is reserved for life after death.
Against this Judaism protests with every sinew of its soul, every
fibre of its faith. Life is sacred. Death defiles. God is the God of
life to be found only by consecrating life. Even King David was told
by God that he would not be permitted to build the Temple because "dam
larov shafachta, you have shed much blood."
Judaism is supremely a religion of life. That is the logic of the
Torah's principle that those who have had even the slightest contact
with death need purification before they may enter sacred space. The
parah adumah, the rite of the red heifer, delivered this message in
the most dramatic possible way. It said, in effect, that everything
that lives - even a heifer that never bore the yoke, even red, the
colour of blood which is the symbol of life - may one day turn to ash,
but that ash must be dissolved in the waters of life. God lives in
life. God must never be associated with death.
Eyal, Gilad and Naftali were killed by people who believed in death.
Too often in the past Jews were victims of people who practised hate
in the name of the God of love, cruelty in the name of the God of
compassion, and murder in the name of the God of life. It is shocking
to the very depths of humanity that this still continues to this day.
Never was there a more pointed contrast than, on the one hand, these
young men who dedicated their lives to study and to peace, and on the
other the revelation that other young men, even from Europe, have
become radicalised into violence in the name of God and are now
committing murder in His name. That is the difference between a
culture of life and one of death, and this has become the battle of
our time, not only in Israel but in Syria, in Iraq, in Nigeria and
elsewhere. Whole societies are being torn to shreds by people
practising violence in the name of God.
Against this we must never forget the simple truth that those who
begin by practising violence against their enemies end by committing
it against their fellow believers. The verdict of history is that
cultures that worship death, die, while those that sanctify life, live
on. That is why Judaism survives while the great empires that sought
its destruction were themselves destroyed.
Our tears go out to the families of Eyal, Gilad and Naftali. We are
with them in grief. We will neither forget the young victims nor what
they lived for: the right that everyone on earth should enjoy, to live
a life of faith without fear.
Bila hamavet lanetzach: "May He destroy death forever, and may the
Lord God wipe away the tears from all faces." May the God of life, in
whose image we are, teach all humanity to serve Him by sanctifying
life.
