It was a heart-wrenching day, with tens of thousands of mourners at the funerals.Namlevy made an inspiring 2-minute video on YouTube, dedicated to the Chabad House hostages.
I think one is missing from the video, because her body was found later than the other five. Fifty-year-old Norma Shvarzblat-Rabinovich was a Mexican Jew who had planned to make aliya to Israel to join two of her children who had already moved here. She had spent the past few months touring India, and had planned to fly from Mumbai to Israel on Monday, the 18th birthday of her son, Manuel.
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For those dreadful three days of unknowing, we here worried and prayed a lot. For all the many there in India who were killed and wounded, of course. But in a more personal way for our Jewish brethren. Because of Jewish Peoplehood, Jews everywhere feel like family, everyone of us is responsible for the wellbeing of the other.
I don't know, maybe it is hard for normal people to understand this feeling. Normal people are spared this burden and/or blessing of being a People, a nation scattered in a big diaspora.
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I asked for your help last week and you gave it. Thank you, dear blogger-friends around the world, for all your support and counsel! It was so wonderful how the tragedy brought us all together. And the other good thing to come of all this was my getting to know the Indian bloggers, some of them right in the thick of things in Mumbai. God bless you all.
very very tragic - words cannot express it
ReplyDeleteI was so sorry to hear about this and the poor 13 year old American girl who was killed with her father. What is the sense of all this?
ReplyDeleteI am musing over your use of the words "normal people". (I'm not meaning this as a flame, so please don't take it that way.)I am trying to decide if I am one of the "normal people."
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish people are blessed--I think blessed is correct--with a strong tradition based in the covenants with Abraham, Jacob, Moses. A covenant people. It certainly makes for a strong family/community/people feeling.
I think there are others of us with strong traditions as well. I've lived or traveled among some of them--and I know you have, too. Religious traditions, national traditions, ethnic traditions. Beautiful traditions. I hope that tradition is an adequate word to define it--maybe there isn't an adequate word.
Maybe not being able to define it makes it more difficult to understand. I think I do, though--at least some.
It's almost beyond your comprehension that there are hardly any safe places in this world of ours.I feel for you and the Jewish Peoplehood and I hate all the violence against them.
ReplyDeleteI admire this feeling, Dina. That's something that unite a community. We lack this link which is non-existant for us as nation, or religion. It's a strenght.
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad that such terrible things happen in the world today, but it is encouraging to see how many people come together and join in prayer in times like this. The blogger world is interesting to me. I keep in contact with a blogger in Mumbai. When I heard the news of the attacks, one of my first thought was of him. We need to all be concerned for each other.
ReplyDeleteAn Arkie's Musings
I love the old Testament Bible and I would like to think I understand. I was taught you were a chosen people.
ReplyDeletePatsy
The way Jews feel about each other - this responsibility for each other - this is how all people need to feel for each other.
ReplyDeleteSome 20- somethings brought the whole nation to standstill. I am extremely sad and sorry all this happened. My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved.
ReplyDeleteHeart-wrenching and tragic stories. The ones personally involved will never be the same again. Thank you for the link.
ReplyDeleteDina:
ReplyDeleteYou beautifully explained the glory and burden of being "a people" throughout the world and throughout the ages. I'm touched to hear an Israeli acknowledge the diaspora folk as "family." Today we all wept- but don't rejoice terrorists. We weep and we grow and we endure. These are not tears of defeat, fear, or frustration. They are tears of compassion, gratitude, and holy power from the God of the Universe. Good will always prevail. Come let us reason together. . . .
I do understand Peoplehood, Dina -- and my heart goes out to you all over this devastating, senseless tragedy. We can only hope and pray that God, as He so often does, will bring something good out of it all.
ReplyDeleteYour blog brings us together in times like this, and we do appreciate you so much.
(I was grateful to discover that my friends were not anywhere near Mumbai).
Dina, you teach non-Jews so beautifully about "kol yisrael aravim zeh la zeh", Jews are connected to each other.
ReplyDeletePetrea, what a beautiful thought, that all people could feel connected to each other. It is painful to once again to know that some in this world have no inclination in that direction.
We were saddened to hear of this horrendous tragedy! About being part of a family of God... we as 'born again' believers in Jesus Christ feel deeply what happens to fellow Christians, because they are part of us and we of them.
ReplyDelete"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28. All are children of God who repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ their Redeemer. This truth is a heartbeat of life to me...living it daily with joy. I probably haven't expressed this very well...I'm trying too...=). Thank you for your patience. Our sympathy goes out to your people. If it were impossible for me to be a child of God...I would wish myself Jewish to be near him...thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift of his son...I am his and he is mine.
I get your "normal" people quote. I understand it not as an ethnic or religious attribute, but as the notion of people constantly exposed to terror. And I understand completely, having been and worked in Israel during the Yom-Kippur War.
ReplyDeleteKlaus
More than a tragedy, Dina.
ReplyDeleteI think that our world, with the great spiritual and scientific progress we reached, ought to be much much better.
Sad indeed, prayer will continue
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