The term "there are no words" doesn't describe what many people, including myself, are feeling today.
Supporting Our Israel isn't just about Israel, its about Jews too. We are one nation with one country, G-d given. We are G-d's children. When someone has a joyous event, we can all celebrate as family. When a tragedy happens, we do not shirk the responsibility, we gather around and try to make the best of a situation, or at least try to bring the pain down, no matter how minute.
Leiby Kletzky, HY"D, was only eight years old. Just typing those words choke me up and bring tears to my eyes. This beautiful child was murdered and the killer, whose name I will never write on this blog, is playing games, telling the judge today he hears voices and other nonsense.
Two nights ago, I was called by a friend of mine to go a half hour away and go help look for Leiby. I got dressed, had a quick dinner, told my wife I'll be back soon and left. We arrived in Borough Park and saw hundred of people active. It was such a Kiddush Hashem. Not only Jews, but I saw Muslims, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Russians, we all came together, unfortunately for naught, to look for this holy neshama. I felt proud to be part of the search effort, and in retrospect, I was only three of four blocks away from where his body was found.
People are right. There are no words. Many of my friends are like me, new parents. It doesn't compute, as a parent, to hear of someone losing their child, let alone in such a horrifying and disturbing manner. There are no words. It is frightening and nauseating.
Supporting Our Israel, meaning myself, Simon, stands for helping the Jewish Ideal. It doesn't just mean to help Israel. Without the Jews, Israel would just be another country, and without Israel, Jews would just be another religious group. We stand apart though, because in times of trouble and times of sorrow, such as now, we stand together, whether its bombs dropping in Sderot, a Jew in need of financial assistance, or coming together in memory of a murdered little boy, who only wanted to walk by himself from camp to his mother, roughly seven blocks away.
How can one explain this? How can one try to digest that one of our own perpetrated this heinous, disgusting, horrifying crime? It is unexplainable. Its incomprehensible. Truth is, however, I don't know if I want to comprehend it. This epitome of evil, disgusting entity, not even a human being, is so far off of many people's radars because it is just that, unexplainable.
There is no way to swallow this, but we can only learn a lesson. One I have always preached, in Yeshiva, in NCSY, on campus...We are all Jews. As Jews, we take the bad and we change ourselves. We make ourselves a little better. That is the greatest tribute we can give this little boy. Be nicer to your parents, or spouse, or children. Tell your kids, if you have, that you love them and let them never forget it either.
Ask anyone who may know me. I am not the type of guy who cries. I never have been. I have known Death, however, too much since I have been in New York, or for that matter, since I was young. I have had a family friend murdered, a friend hit by a dump truck, a friend drop dead of a serious heart problem and, more recently, a failed pregnancy that almost took my wife. Yet, this boy, whom I have never met, from a family I do not know, has completely floored me.
There are no words.
Believe me Leiby, you will be remembered. If for nothing else, then you have changed this single Jew. I can only sit here and try to change myself and hopefully, by proxy, my family, friends, and community.
We should never know of such tragedies again. We should only live to see Mashiach, to see the Geulah/Redemption and to once again, see those taken from us, including Leiby, in that time, playing with his siblings again, hugging his parents, and bringing nachas to Klal Yisrael.
To say there are no words would be a lie. There are words, but they can't come out and be heard over the crying and the sobbing.
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