Terror

by Debbie Shapiro

Mrs. Shapiro, a professional writer in Jerusalem whose byline appears weekly in the American Yated Ne’eman, has had articles published in these pages, most recently, “Reb Shimshon’s Truth”(May ’01).

There are some evenings that will remain engraved in your memory, warming your heart for years to come.

Motza’ei Shabbos started out as just such an evening. It was spent visiting close friends of mine who had recently made aliya and built their dream house on a small moshav outside Kiryat Sefer.

Childhood memories, laughter, good food; it was an evening of nostalgia, an evening of wonder that so many years had gone by and that now we were even older than our parents had been “way back when.”

Later, someone drove me to Kiryat Sefer, where I returned to reality and had a quick visit with my married children before catching the 11:30 bus back to Yerushalayim.

I had planned on spending the 40-minute bus ride catching up on my sleep. I knew that it would be after midnight by the time I arrived home, and I had to get up early the next morning. Before closing my eyes, I asked the woman in the seat ahead of me to make sure I didn’t sleep through my bus stop.

That was when I heard the announcement on the radio: two enormous bombs had exploded in the center of Yerushalayim. Half an hour later, we were told that there had been a third explosion – this time a deadly car bomb, precisely timed to maim and injure the rescue workers.

All the words commonly used to describe “terror” cannot even begin to depict that icy, gripping feeling that comes as the adrenaline rushes through the system and one is overwhelmed with emotion. Thank G-d I am safely on the bus, and my children are secure in their beds, but so many of my friends have children who frequent the midrachov on Motza’ei Shabbos. I refuse to allow myself to think beyond that and quickly begin to recite Tehillim.

By the time I arrive home it is after 12:30, yet everyone is still awake, still in shock. Over 180 people, most of them youngsters, are wounded, and 10 precious Yiddishe neshamos have been murdered.

It has been close to one year and three months since the beginning of this mini-war. Every day – every single day - there are shootings, bombings, miracles and tragedies.

My own son was “lightly injured” a few months ago after Arabs pelted his car with stones. Out of control, his car bounced back and forth across the highway until it crashed into the center and flipped over on its side. My son needed three hours of emergency surgery to repair multiple fractures, and spent over six weeks with his mouth wired together.

The attack warranted less than one sentence in the local newspaper.

A close friend of mine, a single mother with five children, was shot in the chest this Succos and reported as “moderately wounded.”

The bullet pierced her liver, and then passed within less than a millimeter of her heart and lungs before miraculously exiting between her ribs. Although she was grateful to be alive, she spent over two months in the hospital, recovering from her wounds.

Just two of the many statistics, two of the thousands of precious Jews who were “only” lightly or moderately injured.

It would be wonderful if the politicians could come up with some magic formula to erase terrorism. A quick solution to eradicate evil and anti-Semitism. We’d give in a little, they’d give in a little, everyone would understand each other and the world would be filled with good will.

But that, as we all know, is only wishful thinking.

Rabbi Menachem Ziemba, the famous Rav of the Warsaw Ghetto, was a member of the pre-war Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah and one of the leading speakers at the third Knessiya Gedola (Internation Conference of Agudath Israel), held only two years prior to the outbreak of World War II.

“Why does Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai say, ‘It is a halacha that Esav hates Yaakov?’“ asked Rav Ziemba. “Why is it termed a halacha?

“There are people who make an attempt to understand this hatred. They come up with all sorts of answers: Here the Jews are despised because they are capitalists and there because they are socialists; here because they are hardworking and intelligent and there because they are lazy and unsophisticated; here because they are fanatically religious and there because they have no religion and morals.

“Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai,” concluded Rabbi Ziemba “was teaching us an important lesson. ‘It is a halacha’ – it is a halacha without any reason, and no matter what we do, we will not be able to discover the cause.”

Rabbi Menachem Ziembas’s words are as relevant today as they were over 60 years ago. There is no rational reason for anti-Semitism. There is no intelligent explanation for the senseless terrorist attacks that maim and kill innocent people. There is no logical reason behind this baseless hatred.

Several years ago, a bomb destroyed the building that housed the Jewish Agency in Buenos Aires. Kol Yisroel, the Voice of Israel, was quickly at the scene, interviewing the survivors and families of the many that were missing.

With true Israeli diplomacy, one of the reporters asked a woman, whose husband was reported as missing, how she felt when she first heard the news.

The woman’s answer moved me to tears. She told the reporter that she was a ger tzeddek, a convert to Judaism. “When I converted several years ago,” she said in halting Hebrew, “I was told that through accepting the Jewish religion, I was accepting everything that goes along with it, including the anti-Semitism.

“I accepted it then,” she continued, “and now I must also accept it.”

One by one, the different major world movements and philosophies– communism, socialism, materialism, secular Zionism - have been proven false. The Iron Curtain has fallen, the Twin Towers have fallen, and the Jewish State is a hollow answer for anti-Semitism.

Only the words of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai ring true. Anti-Semitism cannot be eradicated. It is an integral part of being Jewish. Esav will always despise Yaakov.

And we must accept that.

Our weapon has been handed down to us through the generations. Yes, we must take whatever measures are necessary to secure a true peace. But at the same time, we must know that “kol kol Yaakov.” Our true strength lies in the power of our tefilla.

The choice is ours. We must turn to the One who is the Cause of all causes and beg Him to put an end to our suffering.

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