Special Class

Rabbi Simon Jacobson’s Wednesday night class will be dedicated this week to Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and the other precious lives massacred in the Mumbai terrorist attack

Tonight, Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 8:15PM EST
At our new home: MLC@ 6th, 325 East 6th St., bet. 1st & 2nd. Aves., in downtown Manhattan's East Village

The Mumbai massacre of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and many other innocent souls has touched a chord, shaking up people all over the world in an unprecedented manner. We are shocked and stunned: How can such a thing happen? A young couple committed their lives to helping others, moved away from the comfort of their families and communities to serve in a distant land. Why and how can they have been murdered so brutally?! Leaving a 2 year-old orphan, shattered families and the rest of us all shaking our heads. And for what purpose? Not money, power or envy.

They were executed simply because they were Jewish… Every death is difficult, every murder senseless. But in this instance, the sheer contrast of the Holtzberg's selfless dedication with the extreme cruelty of their deaths is simply unfathomable. It offends every fiber of our beings, assaulting our every sense of justice and fairness. And where was G-d in all of this?

How are we supposed to react to this tragedy? Besides for outrage and unanswered questions, is there anything we can do? How do we avoid succumbing to fear, knowing that this could have happened to any one of us, in any place in the world? And how do we avoid gravitating back to complacency, as time passes and our memories fade? Can we harness the tremendous outpouring of compassion and unity into a lasting experience?

Please share this with friends and associates.

Thank you

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