Israel's Collective Heart - Facing the Outrage
A Druze policeman Zidan Sayif and four Rabbis Aryeh Kupinsky, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, Rabbi Kalman Levine, and Rabbi Moshe Twersky have been murdered - innocent victims in a war based on hatred, deception and lies. The demonization of the Jew has reached the point where we are slaughtered in broad daylight, within the confines of our sacred space.
Murderers who walked into a place of worship and butchered men, some of whom old enough to be their fathers, in cold blood. I watched statuses all day enraged by the ridiculous nature of some international media coverage. I sat in traffic for nearly 2 hours leaving Jerusalem and listened to somber music on a dreadful day...I observed a passionate conversation on a parents group from my daughters daycare about the level of security our children are provided with. In what other place on earth would anyone even fathom to think that such evil...an evil no matter how ruthless, could cross the absolute last line of civilization and target babies? I engage with countless people throughout the day who promise it "will be ok"...I want to believe that. Michelle Rojas Tal
It's way too easy to not internalize what has happened. How many Jews have been killed in Jerusalem in the last few weeks. Do you remember all their names? Their faces? I don't. But I do remember the Fogel Family. I will never forget those pictures. And I should not forget about them. And neither should you.
What happened in Har Nof could have happened in Ramat Beit Shemesh, or Ginot Shomron, or anywhere in Israel. We need to be shocked into action. Here in Israel - and everywhere in the world - we have been lulled into complacency and convinced that these terrorist murders are simply part of normal life. Well, they are not, and they never should be. We need to wake up -- now! Brad Salzman
ZAKA Chairman Yehuda Meshi Zahav described the scene inside the synagogue: "I've seen disaster scenes that were a lot worse with more fatalities, but to see Jews with beards and pe’ot (sidelocks) wrapped in teffilin (phylacteries), surrounded by puddles of blood – I do not remember seeing such a sight. This is not a cliché, it’s the reality," he continued.
Are you angry now? Are you mad? Is this the blood and guts and proof you needed. Will you march and scream and swear Never Again? Craig Dershowitz
Jewish blood of NO consequences, again; Hitlerism in Jerusalem, Jews are murdered by the numbers under Jewish sovereignty; that must end or we must admit that the Arabs are a step ahead of ending Israel. Jewish blood poured on the bible, the Talit, on the floor of synagogue, could not be more gruesome and consequential. Nurit Greenger
When Jews can not pray in safety in the Jewish State there is something badly wrong. It's time for Israel to heed the words of the book Deuteronomy "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them." Kasim Hafeez
I did not know them , they are now just a blessed memory to family friends and all of Israel
And here in the diaspora, my eyes are full of tears .Why is the world not crying?
Innocent blood
We cry, They celebrate
World you don’t give a damn Ruth Jacobs
Tonight one of my eighth grade students asked me why so many people hated the Jews. Tonight I became my father as he did before him explaining to another generation that we are a small and despised people. I told the history of our people, why we were always strange in the eyes of others, in history how we've been blamed for other people's problems. We've been kicked out of nearly every country on earth. We're lucky to live in America but our fortune could change.
The rabbis died this morning in their Tallitot. I asked the Bar and Bat Mitzvah children to remember that, and just as they died in them, we need to live in ours. When will this dreadful chain end? Noah Zvi Farkas
Generations of hate taught systematically to young minds, cemented into evil acts leading to violence cannot be swept away. How we deal with this event will have long term ramification for all of the nation of Israel.
Dear World, We are engaged in the battle between good and evil. There is no neutral.
Please choose a side.
Hint: The side that hacks off people's arms and runs over babies is NOT the good side. Laura Ben-David
The people who committed the terrorist attack at the synagogue in Jerusalem have been referred to as animals.
I object. They are not animals. Animals do not kill for pleasure or lust.
The people who did this are from a place so dark that even the devil fears to walk. Justin Amler
This is not an intifada - it is a war for the soul of Israel and for the identity of the state. Maurice Solovitz
The Hebrew word for security is bitachon, also the word for trust in and reliance on Hashem. Bitachon does not imply any lessening of our own efforts to protect ourselves and fight our wars. Bitachon is an emotional mitzvah, a mitzvah of the heart. Bitachon instructs how we should feel rather than how we should act. We have to act in ways that are natural, and feel in ways that are divine. Israel and its armed forces are the tools that we use to act; Hashem is the Rock that nourishes and secures our hearts. The stronger our attachment to our Rock, the greater will be the safety we secure with our tools. David Lapin
V'hee she'amda lavoteinu velanu, shelo echad bilvad amad aleinu lechaloteinu, vehakadosh baruch hu matzileinu miyadam.
That which stood for our ancestors applies to us as well. For it was not only one individual who stood up against us to destroy us. Rather, in every generation they stand up against us to destroy us. But the Holy One, Blessed Be He, redeems us from their hands.
I have no answers, here and now. I abhor violence yet I feel elemental desires to punish and revenge, knowing that such acts put us on their level – which Heaven forfend. I do not wish to see any more deaths or injuries of any one, be they Israeli or Palestinian. But this land is all we have. Confused words but the best that I can muster right now. I have an appointment with my tallit and tephillin. The rest is silence. Alan Ralph Gold
Every day in Eretz Yisrael is a gift and a miracle. I have no pretensions of knowing Hashem's will, but I do know that everything He does is purposeful, and that His compassion that is often hidden from the human eye. Anyone who values human life and reality and the eternal nature of the soul is appalled by the idea of people entering a synagogue and killing people who they never met randomly. Rebbetzin Tzipora Heller, whose son in law was injured in the attack and whose grandson just barely escaped.
So many feelings. Blood, blood, blood. But they were Black Hats, not like me. So it couldn't happen to me. But, it could. It could. It could.
They were just like me. So, close. Just the other side of town. And the killers lived even closer -- not much more than a mile from our home.
We live on the fault line here. Between East and West. Between Muslim and Jew. Our problems are the world's problems. But we live closer to it than most. Right on the fault line. Peace, true peace for all, can only come from here. From the fault line. But today was just blood. A quake. That shakes us all. Alan Abrams
I've been able to hold it together during this latest intifada (whether or not they call it that, it's what it clearly is). Mostly, at least. I have teared up a number of times, maybe leaked a tear one or twice, but this... for wherever reason, this is it. I feel the dam breaking and know I will cry myself to sleep once I finish praying for these innocent victims.
Shema Yisrael, HASHEM Elokeinu, HASHEM Echad.
Baruch Dayan Emes. May their families be comforted among the mourners of Zion and may our prayers be an aliyah for their souls. Shoshana Chana Jacobs
We feel hopeless and helpless, abandoned and disillusioned. We turn to the only source we have and that is to Hashem. We must feel their pain and feel their fear. Empathy is an important Jewish trait. We can no longer go on with our lives today as if all is normal and all is the same; for it is not. Rabbi Ron Yitzchok Eisenman
I've always told friends abroad, "If I'm very quiet on Facebook...WORRY!" On an unspeakably, dark day like today, I find myself torn between wanting everyone I know to hear of this senseless slaughter, and holding back, because it's virtually impossible to find words that describe this savagery. Scrolling through my newsfeed, I see images of bloodied prayer shawls, crimson puddles, motionless, suited legs, and dripping hatchets, interspersed with posts of smiling kids, jokes, game invitations and recipes, and feel entirely schizophrenic. Hoping that tomorrow will be a better day. For the 26 children orphaned within 6 minutes, and the wives, sisters, brothers, parents and friends left behind, I wish for G-d's comfort, and an impossible-to-find understanding of this madness. Lisa Brink
My cab driver and I just hugged goodbye.
This sounds like the start of a story about an awkward encounter, but it's actually one about the purest moment I've had in a while.
We sat together in traffic for twenty minutes, listening to the funerals of the victims of the Har Nof terror attack.
We cried together.
We sat in silence in front of my apartment, and when I went to leave he got out too, and we hugged.
We hugged in a moment of shared pain for people we've never met.
We hugged in a moment of shared fear for our country, for our city.
We hugged in a moment of Jewish connection, of Israeli bonds that transcend all of the evil in the world.
May all the mourners of Jerusalem be comforted tonight. Samantha Vinokor
There is something comforting about the fact that all of my facebook feed is about the terror attack, people from both Israel and the US, from liberal to conservative (all Jewish of course but hey, thats who I know). The unity against our enemies is a little bit of what we need now. Miriam Gottlieb
Despite the situation, yesterday, after i walked over and picked Ilan up from school,We had ravioli in our local pizza place, went to the park and than at dusk walked back to the neighborhood center for hot chocolate...We enjoyed the sun. As a Jerusalemite of 30 years standing, I refuse to allow these terrorists to dictate my life and cause me to live in fear. Refuse. Liz Elsby
"Fear? Only of G-d" - Banner seen in Beit Shemesh today, hung by a youth movement in wake of terror massacre yesterday in Jerusalem
Here are the names of those fighting for their lives and/or needing healing as a result of this morning's abominable terrorist attack.
Please pray for them-- this is something anyone can do to help: Shmuel Yerucham son of Bila,
Chaim Yehiel son of Malka,
Avraham Shmuel son of Shayna
Eitan son of Sarah.
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