The Blogs: Every one had a name, JEW: Proud and true! Terror won’t dim their stars!

Oh how bitter the tears we cry. We lost another child taken from us by cruelty. Our watering eyes soak the earth. Why why why? There’s really only one reason.

He was a Jew. That was his name.

When someone so dear to us has passed away we look to each other for comfort and understanding. We pray, we reflect. But this wasn’t any part of the “natural order” of things. Dvir Sorek didn’t just pass away, zk’l. Nor did Rabbi Benjamin Harling, zk’l, his grandfather.

In fact, since September 2000, there have been 1,356 Israeli victims of terror: In Memory of the Victims of Palestinian Violence and Terrorism in Israel. This is no ordinary list. Mothers, Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, Loved Ones, Children, Infants. Seemingly there’s no end to this “list”. It is grotesque.

This doesn’t even include all the Israeli soldiers mortally wounded under terror attacks while defending our very right to exist, our freedoms and our Homeland. It doesn’t begin to include all the deliberately targeted and savagely murdered individuals around the world, who were attacked and killed solely because they were Jews. There was no other reason.

Every year on Passover we sit around the table to retell our history of redemption. More than a story, our Pesach Haggadah lets us experience and learn from our past, and gives us hope for our future. When we opened our doors this past year on Seder night, we yearned for Eliyahu HaNavi, Elijah the Prophet, to usher us into a new world of true Shalom for Am Yisroel and Eretz Yisroel, Peace for all mankind really. We recited with fervor, “Next Year in Jerusalem!” That was not to be. We learned instead of the monstrous creature who chose to attack and kill dear Jews at a Poway Synagogue on Shabbos Kodesh, the last day of Pesach.

Added to the Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre, it was as if terror strikes against Jews is somehow just a thing that happens. After all it’s really a daily occurrence in Israel, and there have been more frequent attacks around the world too. We just live with it, along with countless other sinister, cowardly attacks against Jews who were carrying on their daily lives when assaulted. Right? Wait, what?!

How we cry. How we grieve. How our eyes have shriveled dry from all the tears. We just completed our Fasting and reciting of Lamentations on Tisha bAv.

We mourned as a unified nation. Thousands of years after the destruction of our Holy Temples, we still do the very same ritual Mitzvos and prayers of our ancestors. Why? We’re Jews! We yearn to rebuild and strengthen our connection with our Lord. We have faith. That’s what makes us Jews.

Now comes Shabbos Nachamu, The Sabbath of Comfort. Yeshayahu, Isaiah the Prophet declares נַֽחֲמ֥וּ נַֽחֲמ֖וּ עַמִּ֑י Console Console My People.

So, we look up to Heaven. What does G-d want us to know? G-d promised He would make us as numerous as the stars. Look closer at those stars, for such wonder and brilliance Isaiah comes to teach us in the very last phrase (26) in the Haftorah for Shabbos Nachamu:

הַמּוֹצִ֥יא בְמִסְפָּ֖ר צְבָאָ֑ם לְכֻלָּם֙ בְּשֵׁ֣ם יִקְרָ֔א מֵרֹ֚ב אוֹנִים֙ וְאַמִּ֣יץ כֹּ֔חַ אִ֖ישׁ לֹ֥א נֶעְדָּֽר

Every single one is called by name, from G-d. Every single one is precious. Every single one is known for eternity… No one is missing.

Dvir Sorek, zk’l, and every Jewish victim killed by terror will shine brightly as the stars! Their lives and memories will live on within us, just as G-d Himself lovingly knows each and every one by name.

Terror will not ever defeat the Jew. Perhaps the strength in being a Jew is found when we look further into Yeshayahu, (31):

those who put their hope in the Lord shall renew [their] vigor, they shall raise wings as eagles; they shall run and not weary, they shall walk and not tire.

וְקוֵֹ֚י ה֙ יַֽחֲלִ֣יפוּ כֹ֔חַ יַֽעֲל֥וּ אֵ֖בֶר כַּנְּשָׁרִ֑ים יָר֙וּצוּ֙ וְלֹ֣א יִיגָ֔עוּ יֵֽלְכ֖וּ וְלֹ֥א יִיעָֽפוּ

May this Shabbos Nachamu bring redemption to Jerusalem and all Israel. CHAZAK!