What a sad day it is, the emotions are still raw, the tears are still wet, and the graves are still soft.
For the Jewish people, news like these are not just one-time news tickers that fade in a few hours. It lingers on, and it invokes deep scars, pain that is registered in every Jewish memory. A blood soaked memory that has been encoded with scenes of pogroms, blood libels, expulsions and mass killings for the last 2000 years.
I might be young, but after seeing the murdered lying with talis and tefilin, I remembered the mass killings of babi yar. After seeing blood soaked sidurim, I remembered the pogroms in Keshaniv. When I saw the UN's reaction, I remembered the world's silence while the chimneys produced smoke and ash. When I saw subhumans handing out candies and celebrating with joy, I remembered the laughter of some blue-eyed thugs laughing at our misery somewhere in a Polish town square. When I saw the cruel CNN and The Guardian reports, I remembered Der Sturmer.
But my friends, I also remember our prophets, who have foreseen all this many ancient ages ago, and that gives me hope. For they also told of a time when the tears will be wiped away and righteousness will reign.
Old men and women shall yet sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of old age. And the streets of the city shall be filled, with boys and girls playing in its streets. (Zecharya 8, 4-5)
We are witnessing a return of a people, an awakening of a tortured nation coming back slowly slowly to their home. May we see the fulfillment of their prophecies soon in our days with Mashiach Tzidkeinu. Then we'll live to see another promise of "He has concealed death forever, and the Lord God shall wipe the tears off every face". (Yeshayau 25, 8)
(11/18/2014 - Two Palestinian terrorists savagely attacked Jews while praying Shachrit in Har Nof, Yerushalayim. Killing 5 and injuring 8 others. May Hashem avenge their blood and send a full recovery to the sick, and comfort the mourning.)