Boker tov, Boulder!

One person's heaven could be another's hell

Via The Geek with a .45 [scroll down to "Over the Transom..."] The Husband wants us to see an act of someone's wishful thinking ... dated July 4, 2009.

"It's all about how at this point, we need to push harder than ever," said Bertha Suttner, one of the newspaper's writers. "We've got to make sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to do. After eight, or maybe twenty-eight years of hell, we need to start imagining heaven."

Like The Geek says, "Make of it what you will."

A.D.D. ALERT / We ignore Hate@HuffingtonPost at our peril

I would ask, "Where's the ADL when you need them?" but we covered that earlier this morning, so let's just get straight to it.

Keep in mind that Technorati ranks Huffington Post The No. 1 Blog by "authority," defined as "the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months."

Not in our wildest dreams do any right-wingers or Zionists have anything even close to the "authority" of HuffPo (29,213).

Just to get your feet wet, here's an excerpt from a lightweight thread of comments on an article about an Obama interview with Barbara Walters, in which there was some mention of Obama not sleeping well because of all that's on his mind.

P.S., I've italicized the comments of my friend Avigdor who takes a bit of interest in confronting hate in the trenches.

- George Bush, in contrast, sleeps soundly.

- It's very helpful -not to mention, patriotic- to degrade and demonize Pres. Bush at this point.. I'll have to remember that when your guy takes office and you tell me I should "get behind" the president.

- You mean Obama ISN'T "your guy". What do you, exist in a vacuum? Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting. The Republican mind is vacuous . . . I'm liberal but I'm also a law & order guy. I want to see all criminals tried and incarcerated for their crimes, especially the members of Bush & Company. Please spare us the "degrade and demonize Pres. Bush" stuff. Let him eat turkey in a jail cell . . .

- Bushies...you people still exist???

No big deal, right? Okay, let's move now to the article about murdered Rabbi Holtzberg and wife Rivka, HY"D.

And before someone starts whining: Yes, these comments have been "cherry-picked" by yours truly in an effort to make my point. Certainly, not all the comments are offensive, but then not all Germans were Nazis, either, and that didn't stop the murder of 6 million Jews. Not all Muslims (or leftists) hate Jews (or Israel), but let's face it, a threat does not have to be unanimous to be dangerous.

"Simply stated, consensus is different from other kinds of decision making because it stresses the cooperative development of a decision with group members working together rather than competing against each other. The goal of consensus is a decision that is consented to by all group members. Of course, full consent does not mean that everyone must be completely satisfied with the final outcome - in fact, total satisfaction is rare. The decision must be acceptable enough, however, that all will agree to support the group in choosing it."

Now you can read these comments about the murders of two beautiful young innoncent Jews, and judge for yourself.

-religions do good, religions do bad as well, I alway wonder what if there was no religion, the world would be better off or worse off? help me , people.

-Religion certainly does not seem to help, but I suppose without it people would find some other motivation..

-Another example of people who would have been better off just keeping their religion to themselves. Seems like the idiots that go out try to convert people always end up getting killed or kidnapped. Jews, mormons, christians....doesn't matter. Stay home, practice your religion and quit trying to tell other people that they should believe what you do.

-PaIestine belongs to the PaIestinians. There is no possible peace without the PaIestinians returning to their 1948 homes and Iand.

-No disrespect intended, but close to 150 people died in these attacks, and yet the other 145 mostly gentiles deserve no mention in the American Media. The American Media is focusing on 5 people out of 150. The Isreali Defense Force is in Mumbai to save who???? No Disrespect intended, but the IDF could do some REAL work in the Congo right now the Indian gov't can handle this situation.This needs to be called on the carpet. We are all Humans and we are Equals, not some more equal than others.

-The hypocrisy is sometimes staggering -- not so much anymore, for I now practice acceptance, which says, "It will be as it will be and is that not beautiful". You are never being disrespectful when you point out inequities and hypocrisies. Some believe their lower orifice produces a more premium brand of waste product. We are all human and none (no matter the claim of chosen status) is more exalted than the next. The Jews have suffered historically. My heart weeps for them as it weeps for any who have suffered. It is this idea that the suffering of one group is somehow more important than another that serves to keep flames of hostility burning. There is no one alive or dead who is holier than thou are, for we are all subject to human frailty, even when we claim divine existence.

-With a new administration, I do hope common sense will prevail and that this so called paradigm of fear shall pass.

-if you're not israeli, often times you don't count. when an israeli dies, it's always the top. never mind that over 100 Indians were killed ruthlessly, right? just a bunch of non-Israelis. no need to mention THEM.

-Great idea to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Ariel Sharon, Wolfowitz for major crimes. Go for it!

-What a terrible, terrible country! We bless their Nuclear Arms, while forbidding them to Iran, which is not terrible at all, except that it's not willing to kiss Yankee nasty bits as India is, in order to get them. That's what it boils down to in today's Bush enhanced world: If you are willing to kiss Yankee nasty bits, you are an example of spreading democracy; if not, you are another axis of evil. It's doesn't matter what Indian bungling allows, when push comes to shove, they kiss the Yankee nasty bits. Same with Lieberman, only he is sustained by the Viable Alternative, willingness to kiss Israel nasty bits.

-Iran has never threatened any of its neighbors. this is the Zionist-evangelist propaganda you are repeating. I know, I know, Ahmadinejad has said....... He said: The Zionist Regime should be removed. remember "regime change"?

-Iran has never attacked any other country. Think about it everyone!

-What on other are you blabbing about!!?? Of course faith and religion is antithetical to learning. Faith in its essence is a complete surrender to rational though, and the complete embrace of concepts that are far from reality.... If anything, the last couple decades as evangelicals increase their strong hold inside the conservative base they have also manage to convince conservatives that intellectualism is against their moral values. Evangelicals make it quite clear that the bible is the only source of true education and that everything else is a distraction manned by "the evil one"....

-Good that they have faith to move mountains, but do they have sufficient faith to move the mountain of an intransigent Israel to make a comprehensive peace by getting out of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and letting the establishment of a bona fide Palestine with full sovereignty, each living in security and peace, with economic interdependence forthcoming. Is their faith sufficient to move that Israel which we all know so well in its every preemptive move borne in vicious cyclical , iron-fisted bombardment of Palestinians. Can that mountain of Israeli expansionism be moved? We have to have the faith to move that mountain in order to have faith in ourselves as a country adhering to basic principles of justice for all. Each one of us Americans has to have the courage to stand up for what is right, and to demand that our politicians get off the dole of AIPAC and its affiliates.

-Chabad is a bunch of fundamentalists, some of whom have a real problem with the theory of evolution.
They believe "Torah states the World was created in six days". NOW you know more than you did. Google this...Chabad Lubavitch......check out what else isn't in the news.

-I despise the notion that fundamentalists might serve in the American political system but the idea that, because of that view, they deserve to die, is barbaric. A person whose views are ignorant should not run our country but their right to live, so long as they are peaceful, has just as much right to continue living as you or I.

-Wow. You are very generous. Religious people should be allowed to live.

-I agree with you in the fact that they are fundamentalist... I personally frown and scorn all religions are beliefs in space gods. However that shouldn't be a reason to get shot...

-Yes thaey are fundamentalists and may be some of them have problem with the theory of eveolution, who knows they might even be on the right of the political spectrum, but they stil innnocent people cought up in this tragedy

-And right-wingers too should be allowed to live? You guys are just too liberal.

-Hey, as long as Obama makes you feel good about the world it's ok. Right??

-I think you got that backwards. Obama promised to make the world feel good about us, not the other way around. You see, when he becomes president, murderous Islamic terrorists will stop hating America. And when they see him walk on water, they will no longer single out American passport-holders for hostage-taking, torture and beheading. In this way, he will keep us safe and we will no longer need the military. A rainbow over his inauguration is already in the works.

-Intellectually indefensible garbage. Try writing something intelligent next time.

-My heart goes out to all the victims without any discrimination. As a Muslim, it is shameful and embarrassing to see this on the news. No matter what the reasons are, nothing can justify this killings of civilian populations. I am sure though that people will wake up one day and realize that religion is not the cause of this mess. Islam is used like a tool to justify their twisted ideology.

-As an American and a J.e.w (although not practicing) I am totally with you. I am sickened for the victims of all violence everywhere. And I am sorry if you have to put up with any prejudice or intolerance because of some people's narrow and simplistic views of how the complex world functions.

-As a Christian I say, God bless you. I hope and pray that innocent Muslims will not be harmed as a result.

-Religion and stupidity are the culprits - so sad.

-one in the same

-All lives, whether Christian or Jews, are precious and it is very sad that Huffington Post has reported the death of two Jews on the top of the page, while the death of an American father and his daughter, who are Christians, has been posted way down on the page. We should give same respect to each and every person, and just because someone is of a particular religion doesn't mean that others are inferior.

-It never occured to me who got top billing in the obiituaries.
Perhaps I should pay better attention.

-We, as the people need to prevent and stop fundamentalism and radicalism in all religions!

-well it is sad the loss of innocent lives,just like its sad on the palestinians daily killings..as for the chabbad houses,they are not exactlyb mother teresa of calcuta accepting needy people from all faiths,for the purpose of helping them out the sole purpose of the chabbad houses around the whole of india was set up to feed backpakers who and ex isreali soldeirs who have escaped from isreal and their sole purpose in india is drug fuelled parties,you can watch the channel 4 documentary about them,so the chabbad house is there to remind them of judaism so they dont embrace other religions and to feed them on jewish celebrations....

-This has nothing to do with islam,these criminals are using the crime in the name of religion. what would you call the christian americans who open fire and kill each other is schools, or was timothy macvei a muslim..remember him the one who bombed women children and innicent people in america.

-I can see almost every single person with diverse political or philosophical background is attributing the incidents to "terrorism." The act is perpetrated by militants killing people; why has everyone trained himself/herself to call any sort of killing to terrorism? This is to me is a way of concealing the true nature of the killers and their motivations. Not everyone who farts makes WMD in his/her basement.

-what is the motive of the violence? To spread terror. Hence the term terrorists.

-A simplistic response from a simplistic mind.

-What gave you the idea that these terrorists' acts were Islamic??? Responsible news reports and Indian releases to BBC indicate that these militants were NOT Alquida, since they were not suicide bombers, but MUCH MORE LIKELY, belonging to a POLITICAL group believing in Kashmir independence. Stop speading hatred and prejudice by attributing terrorism to Moslems; this is analagous to believing that all the bombings by Irish separatists were for the Catholic Church . . . or the US invasion, occupation, and killing of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan were for the Evangelical Christians. Try to think in the reasoned manner of the US religious LEFT, not the terrorist right.

-Repubs are already spinning this as the world going out of control because they know Obama is "soft on terrorism!"

-rethug$ only know how to operate from a place of constant fe@r of everything. So I'm not surprised.

-Republicans have destroyed this country in the past 30 years. Because of republicans, we have 2 wars with millions dead. Because of republicans, our economy just tanked. Yup, I pretty much can't stand republicans, you got that right. Do I spread h@te? Nope.

-Other countries now perceive us as attempting this behavior today under the guise of helping or preventing genocide and turmoil. Our hands are tied because we and our ancestors set up a framework of wars and "policing" where torture, murder and corruption was pervasive. Iraq is a great example. We should be policing ourselves first.

-A very sad thing and a terrible crime to be sure. But what now, a three way between Hindi, Jewish, and Muslim fundamentalists? The world groans under the weight of these old fanaticisms.

-So, so sad. Everyone please pray for the families.

-Yeah. Lets pray to a god about people who claim they understand the will of god and who are killing each other in the name of god. I have a better idea: put all people who claim they understand this "god" guy on an island and let them fight each other to the death and leave those of us who do not believe
in cults the hell alone!

- I am a Jew, suprised there is a Jewish mission in India. Its not worth the risk and I hope they will stay out of the very dangerous place.

-excuse me ... what about the sickh and hindu terrorists rampantly killing innocent muslims in villages in india..or is your paranoia on islam alone. what about the isreali terrorists who are killing left right and centre
take one look at the settlers.they are even killing and attacking your soldiers. the beautifull people of india are asking the isreali govenrment to stop taking over the villages and spreading drugs..they are asking isreal to tell the backpakers to respect their cultures,and respect the fact that indian poor people have to get up at sunrise to work,not stay up all night from laud music from the 24hr parites those backpakers do..which is becoming intolerable.

-If I may at this time, the history of Jews in India is a long and fascinating one.

-many people died, i hope the MSM doesn't continue to make this couple the only major story

-there are many personal faces to the story yet I keep seeing this couple being the major thing that is covered. it just makes a viewer wonder...

Will the state of Jews become the Jewish state?

Food for thought, from Samson Blinded:

In Holocaust, God did not exterminate only the Jews, but the Judaism of Exile, a religion removed from daily realities. When the Jews went into the Exile, sages instituted a fence around the law, the extra-Biblical body of laws designed to safeguard the commandments. Such a necessity became moot with the establishment of Jewish state. Jews needed to make their country holy rather than preserve individual holiness, as they used to do in the Exile. So objectively the Holocaust was a watershed event which should have ended the religion of the Exile and cleared the place for the original Judaism. That didn’t work, actually: Orthodox Jews clung to the time-tested concept of individual holiness which prompted them to neglect outside abominations in Israel. They prefer observing myriad irrelevant rules to a few major commandments; they tear toilet paper in advance of Shabbat but ignore the commandment of cleansing the Land of Israel from natives and paganism.

The Exile Judaism in Israel opens the door to the most un-Jewish behavior: outside the semi-closed Orthodox communities, empty Zionism is rampant. But the third-generation Israelis, who lack personal experience of anti-Semitism, the major unifying factor of Jews, have emptied their Zionism into a mix of racism, jingoism, and the hatred of Arabs. Wait until the post-Zionists start suing religious Jews over the hateful pronouncements in Taniya, Shulhan Aruch, and the Talmud.

Judaism is the only sustainable national ideology for Jews. Judaism, returned to its original role as a practical way of living in the Holy Land, patriotic, militant, and proud. Judaism allows blessings over artillery shells and menorah images on tanks. Such Judaism may not be that far beyond. As conscription becomes unfashionable in Tel Aviv schools, the army would have to open its doors to the Black Kipas, Orthodox and haredi Jews, who would change its mode of fighting for the better. Once the army accepts their terms of conscription, from kosher food to kosher ways of fighting the Amalek, the state of Jews will become the Jewish state.

Continue reading "The phoenix of Judaism" ....

Mumbai "terrorists" [but but but] Palestinian "militants"

HonestReporting submits this media critique.

Due to my own presently exhorbitant cynicism, I'm not terribly interested in media bias at the moment. HonestReporting has been critiquing the media since Yom Kippur 2000.

I'm sorry, but I don't see that it's done much good... but then, who's to say? Without HonestReporting, our situation - the matzav - might be even worse today.

Gd forbid, instead of merely lifeless, the canary could be dead.

Mid-morning cheer-me-up

A friend sends this, about her ["elegant and loving"] neighborhood ... in the holy city of Yerushalayim.

.... The people in my Kiryat Shmuel palace are not merely friendly; my building is such a hotbed of cornball neighborliness that if one doesn't undergo serious fluoride treatment before spending a weekend, he might walk away with a mouthful of cavities. There is something a little bungalow-colony about the way everyone greets each other in the parking lot. And even though my children pretend to snort/gag at the daily outpouring of warmth that is displayed in the garage on any given morning, I know that secretly they are proud when asked to help build succot or move unwieldy bureaus. And I don't think I am mistaken in the assumption that all of us have, by now, lost count of how many Shabbat or holiday meals we have pot-luck shared, bopping from floor to floor with covered casseroles or shlepping plastic chairs between apartments.

During the 12-day period between Rosh Hashana and Succot, the entire building experienced communal disorientation. We had enthusiastically inter-invited one another but, due to logistical problems, kept redrawing the lists of who-eats-where-and-when. So what happened at the one meal that I had designated as family-alone time? We ended up adding (borrowing) 12 chairs to accommodate the confused neighbors, invited guests and a few unexpected strays from Sweden and Milan. The age range was from 14 to 93. It took three days to clean up and subsequently identify the owners of 11 different serving dishes, but the friendships that grew out of that meal are, in my estimation, indelible.

We had so much fun, in fact, that the following Friday night I appeared at another neighbor's house with my four at-home children and two yeshiva guests in tow, only to be told that we were there on the wrong night. Trying not to appear nonplussed, I tried to behave as though I actually had food for seven people in a well-appointed succa. My neighbor saw through my bluff and insisted that she had more than enough and that we, in fact, were doing her a favor by gracing her table. "Oh, we need your liveliness! Just today Moish was saying, 'I'm disappointed that we don't have more guests.' Please! You'll be doing a great mitzva!" I like doing mitzvas for others, especially when my dinner menu consists of wine, halla and Corn Flakes.

Well aware that borrowers can't be choosers, we are sincerely grateful for the package of napkins that one upstairs neighbor generously gave us to complete the partial place settings for a recent Friday night banquet. After all, who am I to say that electric-blue-and-red Spiderman napkins aren't attractive adornments to subtle-toned Limoges and Mikasa dinnerware? What am I, an ingrate?

As Hanukka approaches, the respective apartment windows of our tiered building are sealed against the cold weather, and the whirring of the electric heating units regularly drown out the noise of city traffic. Nevertheless, it would take more than a cold front to cool the outpouring of friendship and concern that is present in every corner of my extended Jerusalem home.

What I still cannot figure out is how the lovely people I now call neighbors and friends can swap and share books, cots, salad bowls, sage Torah advice and plumbing skills and yet never overstep the respectable bounds of privacy. It is a special quality that is, I believe, characteristic of people who are both elegant and loving.

SHONDEH: American University Presidents Visit Iran

h/t Omri

10/23/2008 AAU LEADERS PLAN VISIT TO IRANIAN UNIVERSITIES

Six presidents of U.S. research universities will visit Iranian universities in November on a trip organized by the Association of American Universities (AAU).

AAU President Robert M. Berdahl, who will accompany the delegation, said the trip is in response to an invitation by the president of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, which will host the visit. The group will visit Tehran University and several other Iranian universities, as well.

The visit complements a series of exchange visits by U.S. scientists to Iran under the sponsorship of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Under the National Academies’ program, Iranian scientists and engineers have also visited U.S. universities and participated in meetings structured around specific topics of mutual scientific interest.

The university presidents traveling to Iran are

• Jared Cohon, Carnegie Mellon University;
• David Leebron, Rice University;
• J. Bernard Machen, University of Florida;
• C. D. Mote, Jr., University of Maryland, College Park;
• David Skorton, Cornell University; and
• Larry Vanderhoef, University of California, Davis.

A number of the presidents were asked to join the trip because they or their institutions have been involved in previous scientific and other exchanges with Iran.

The Lounsbery Foundation, which also has provided assistance for the National Academies’ scientific exchanges, will pay most of the group’s travel expenses.

In addition to meetings with academic leaders and with other higher education officials, the group will meet with faculty in engineering and science. At Sharif University, Iran’s premier science and technology university, they will hold an open forum with students.

“Prior to the Iranian revolution in 1979, a very high percentage of the faculty at Iranian universities was educated in the United States; since that time, and especially since 9/11, that number has declined dramatically,” said Berdahl. “We believe it is important to maintain and renew academic ties between our two countries as a means of laying the groundwork for greater understanding and rebuilding what was once a very healthy collaboration in science and higher education.”

What's not to understand ?

FURTHER SHONDEH:

Regarding the visit to Iran, Mote said he has received mainly positive feedback, including a letter of support from Abe Foxman, the president of the Anti-Defamation League.

So, you might well be wondering, what's the ADL up to these days anyway?

Washington, DC, November 24, 2008 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today joined with a coalition of seven national civil rights organizations to denounce the recent wave of hate crimes against Hispanics and other minorities, including the brutal murder of Marcelo Lucero, a Suffolk County, Long Island man of Ecuadoran descent.

We can only only imagine how many Liberal American Jewish dollars it took to come up with this full report:

Immigrants Targeted

.... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which previously has documented how extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis have exploited the immigration issue to advance their own agenda, has become increasingly concerned about the virulent anti-immigrant and anti-Latino rhetoric employed by a handful of groups and coalitions that have positioned themselves as legitimate, mainstream advocates against illegal immigration in America.

I hope you're getting the message here. While innocent young Jews are being hunted down to the ends of the earth -like, say, apartments in Mumbai India- to be killed by murderous jihadniks, and the incoming American president assembles an anti-Israel, pro-engagement-with-Iran foreign policy "team" -- your friendly neighborhood ADL is worried about Latinos living illegally in America.

No illusions allowed: We are hated and unprotected. We are bereft of leadership. No one gives a damn.

How much Jewish blood does it take to change the world?

Boker tov and shavua tov. Those were the first words I ever blogged. That was on a Sunday as well, and in that first post I dedicated BtB "to life [and] to the children of Israel, like Shai and Chan Harenstein, who have to live without their mother..."

More than five years later, here I sit, stunned that little Moishe Holtzberg has been made an orphan. I have no words of wisdom for you and no comfort to offer. But I can tell you some of what happened to his parents. You will have to imagine the rest.

Via Naomi Ragen:

... the horrible reality of the Islamic terrorist rampage in Mumbai was revealed in all its obscene and mindless savagery when members of Zaka entered the Chabad compound. As an eyewitness told YNET, the sight was unbearable even to the practiced eyes of those whose job it is to deal with the aftermath of murderous terror attacks:"The place was totally destroyed. Live grenades were all over the floor. Torah scrolls and holy books were scattered on the floor, covered with blood." The bodies of the Chabad rabbi and the kashrut supervisor were found in one room, along with two other men whose hands had been tied with telephone wire. The body of the Rabbi's young wife Rivkie was found covered in a tallit. It is believed she was killed before her young husband's eyes and he wrapped her in his tallit. A grandmother from Israel, and a Jewish woman tourist from Mexico were also identified.

shabbat shalom

arbute in nachal kziv by T and E Blumenzweig

"This is the outcome"

The armed assailants also opened fired at random in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station in southern Mumbai. A.N Roy, police commissioner of Maharashtra state, said the terrorists had used automatic weapons and lobbed grenades in some places. Credits: Reuters Published: 11/28/2008 10:28:17

At latest count, 50 hours into the terror war in Mumbai, there are at least 155 dead, more than 300 wounded.

New York Daily News

.... In Crown Heights [Brooklyn], relatives got the call...

"That's it, it's over," the rabbi's cousin, Abraham Holtzberg said, as he hung up the phone at his home in the Georgetown section. "They say there is no one alive."

Exhausted from three days of hoping and praying, Abraham Holtzberg said the couple will be buried in Israel and that Rivka Holtzberg's parents are in India and taking care of their 2-year-old son, Moshe, who was rescued earlier.

Earlier, a Yiddish Web site called VIN News that serves the Orthodox Jewish community announced the "the loss of the kedoshim [holy ones]" beneath the banner headline, "Outrage. Anger. Pain. Tears."

....

Holtzberg was born in Israel and moved to Brooklyn at age 12 where he studied at a Crown Heights yeshiva. His marriage to Rivka was arranged by their families and the couple had been married about five years.

Holtzberg's parents, Frida and Nachman, were in Israel and preparing to fly from there to Mumbai. His in-laws, Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg and Yehudit Rosenberg, live in Israel and have already flown to India.

Abraham Holtzberg said young Moshe should be proud of his father.

"He left his parents, his sister, his relatives, and he went to a different country because of his faith and to give people there a sparkle of religion," Abraham Holtzberg said. "This is the outcome."

When you're ready to consider the fact that Jews are "hounded to the end of the earth," read Treppenwitz. He was hosted by the Holtzbergs "for many meals" in Mumbai's Chabad House... as recently as a week ago.

.... Mumbai is a city of over 18 million people, yet there are only about five thousand Jews living there. And of those, only a few dozen are identifiably Jewish outside of the synagogue.

Heck, the entire country of India - with a staggering population of over 1.1 billion people - has only about 15 thousand Jews! I'm not so good at math, but I think that if you try to express the Jewish population as a percentage of the overall Indian population, you're going to end up with a lot of zeros to the right of the decimal point.

So isn't it weird that nobody seems to be talking about how statistically odd it is that this Muslim terror group sought out and attacked an unremarkable home containing one of India's only identifiably orthodox Jewish families.

Apparently the breaking news from Mumbai has demonstrated anew that targeting Jews is not unusual... even when just finding Jews in India to attack is harder than finding Samoans in Iceland.

(h/t De-Do)

Mumbai attack sends shock waves through Chabad Jewish community worldwide

18th century kabbalist RaMChal, in The Knowing Heart:

The intensification of evil consists... in Gd's completely concealing His countenance from the universe, as it is written (Proverbs 1:28): Then they will call Me and I will not answer

and (Isaiah 59:15): And truth was lacking and the forsaker of evil was accounted senseless.

This is referred to as complete concealment....

In this order and ordinance, heed is not paid to merit or guilt, but the ordinance proceeds.... by allowing evil to intensify in order to reveal afterwards the reign of good.

And all the time that evil is intensifying, the righteous too must abide its oppression - not because this is just, but because the time requires it....

In the period of the intensification of the evil... merits will not avail to save them from it.

Haaretz

The terror attack on the Chabad center in Mumbai that claimed five lives on Friday was the worst attack in the movement's history.

The attack that began on Wednesday sent shock waves through the organization's worldwide delegates network. Chabad emissaries, spread in almost every corner of the globe to help Israelis and Jews, have themselves become terror targets.

"It's still early to say what this will do to us. At the moment we're all very worried and occupied with what's happening in Mumbai," Rabbi Yosef Kantor, Chabad's executive director in Thailand who is also in charge of the center in Mumbai, told Haaretz.

Earlier this week the network held its annual conference in New York, which was attended by some 4,000 delegates from all over the world.

"It was a huge display of power of a project that grows bigger every year. You see young families who set out with great enthusiasm to work in the most remote places on earth," said Chabad spokesman Rabbi Menachem Brod, who returned from New York.

The mission was a central theme in the teachings of the last Lubavitcher rebbe. The importance he assigned to "setting off for places where there isn't even a minyan of Jews" made it a prestigious task for Chabad youngsters to be part of.

Until Wednesday, Chabad centers worldwide were seen as extraterritorial compounds where the rebbe's work was being done.

"We've joined the rabbi's army," says Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, smiling, in a video clip about his work in Mumbai with his wife.

Some 12 Chabad delegates operate in India alone. The Mumbai center was founded five years ago by the Holtzbergs and about a year ago it moved to its new home in the five-floor Nariman Building. The two live with their 2-year-old son on the top floor. The building also has a synagogue, dining room, mikveh and Internet services.

Unlike other Chabad centers, which are intended mainly for Israeli hikers, the Mumbai center serves as a community center for the city's small Jewish community, and many of the Israelis staying there are business people.

On weekdays some 30 people live at the center; on weekends their number rises to 80. A regular staff of eight also lives in the house, said Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg, father of Rivka Holtzberg.

Yossi Goldberg, a Chabad emissary in Bangkok, spoke of the "tension and dread" yesterday and of increased security in the movement's centers in the Thai capital, itself in the throes of a political crisis.

"It's a difficult feeling but we'll continue working more energetically," he said. "Such disasters won't make us reduce our activity and the terrorists will not dictate the extent of our activity, only the rebbe's commands. This Saturday in Bangkok will be a big event, because many Israelis are stuck here due to the riots. We'll continue our work and hope that our large Sabbath feast will be a thanksgiving feast for the release of all the hostages."