1- The world is random. No amount of holiness or payer can save a pious man from random evil. Rabbi Moshe Twersky was a teacher of American students in Israel. His grandfather, had ordained 2,000 rabbis. His father, Rabbi Isadore Twersky, was a prominent American-Jewish leader, and started the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies.
2- Jews don’t control the media. The bias is so unabashed that CNN used quotation marks to avoid committing to calling this a “terrorist act,” reported that it was in a mosque and not a synagogue, and mentioned the killing of the terrorists over the innocent victims.
3- The splatter of bloody prayer books, prayer shawls and tefillins is the shattering of our central prayer, the Shema, which instructs their use. Once again, we are reminded that this war is not only against Israel, but all Jews.
4- There is no safety and nothing sacred when a place of worship turns into a mass grave. The rabbis’ crime was being observant Jews in Israel.
5- The same people that teach their children that matzot and hamantaschen are made with the blood of Palestinians publicly celebrate the murder of Jews at prayer by passing out cookies. This is what we call “projection” in abnormal psychology.
6- Often the call of “end of occupation” is euphemism for “kill all Jews.”
7- We should remain hopeful as although a few bad actors always ruin it for the rest, the majority of Palestinians who live in Israel have been nonviolent.
8- There is also hope as a number of prominent Muslim leaders condemned this act of terror and we should seek to build alliances with them and engage them.
9- The biggest price of democracy is that you must protect the enemy within while affording them the freedom to kill you.
10- Once you injure a life, especially that of a teacher, you affect eternity.
Baruch dayan emet.
