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In Response to Friday's Shooting
 It’s been a long 5 days since our sense of security was shattered by the murder of our beloved Pam Waechter and the shooting of five other members of our community. We all have gone around the circle of feeling violated, angered, despaired, and confused. But when our reaction subsides, what is it replaced by? How are we to understand what has gone on in our community? What will be different?
The shooter lived in a troubled internal world, but that world was fueled by an ideology that sees the killing and terrorizing of innocent people as a noble and even religiously sanctioned thing to do. It is hard for us to even conceive that it would be possible for a human being to consider murder holy, but we now know it to be true firsthand.
Thanks to some very dedicated and talented people, our Jewish institutions have set in motion processes and procedures to ensure a greater level of safety and security. We are going to be more vigilant, more prepared, and more aware. We also know, however, that even with all this necessary work, it’s impossible to prevent every potential terrorist act.
Which leaves us with the following question: What kind of world are we going to live in?
Is it going to be a world of fear, suspicion and mistrust, or even despair? Will we see danger lurking behind every corner? Will the world appear to be a dangerous place, fraught will legions of people who mean to do us and our families harm?
We can’t ignore that there are people out there who want to do the Jewish people harm, just as we can’t ignore that there are burglars and drunk drivers, but after we lock our doors and buckle our seat belts, what does it look like inside our own minds? A mind full of fear, anger, and suspicion sees bad things everywhere and overlooks the beauty of life.
What is the internal world that the Torah reveals for us? A world of truth. A world where the loud individual spasms of terrorism can’t drown out the collective river of goodness in the vast majority of humanity. The Torah teaches us to see beyond fear and anger to the reality that most people are in fact, helpful, caring, and want to do good in this world. We are taught to see that within each, just beyond our egos, lies something so pure it is nothing less than the spark of the Divine. This doesn’t mean we don’t lock our doors at night or buckle the seat belts of our lives. It doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to get angry or frightened by horrific events like terrorist bombings or what occurred on Friday. But after we go through the reaction we turn back with intention to a beautiful world, a world of good. We look from the inside with gratitude and commitment at all of the opportunities and gifts that are lying around us waiting to picked up, dusted off, and given to the world.
We may visit a world of reactivity, that is inevitable, but living in that world would be a step towards the darkness from which the horrible acts came.
We vastly outnumber those who blindly seek destruction. Let every act of terrorism spur us to live higher, do more good in the world, and get more resolved about what it means to be committed to Jewish values. Their terrorism will only make us more resolved and instead of bringing forth fear and despair, it will bring forth more and more acts of good.
It starts with a commitment within each of us.
If not now when?
Chaim Levine |