Chai, chai, chai - Ken, ani od chai! = Alive, alive, alive - Yes, I'm ...

It was almost a perfect Shabbat. Then it ended and I looked at the news. Pittsburgh is a long way from Shilo. I’ve never been there. I can’t really picture what the city looks like but, sadly, I can imagine the grief there today.

As I read various news stories trying to make sense of a senseless tragedy I couldn’t help remembering the Sutherland Springs, Texas shooting almost a year ago. I was in America, on the Kansas-Oklahoma border, when a terrorist opened fire inside a church murdering twenty-six and injuring another twenty. His terror was attributed to mental-health issues.

Every soul is a precious world. Yesterday’s terrorist managed to destroy eleven worlds. Still, I am thankful that G-d sent the first-responders so quickly and more worlds weren’t lost. I pray He will grant a full recovery to the injured.

Yesterday’s terrorist was motivated by anti-Semitism but that is just another form of mental illness. There is no logic to it what-so-ever. Anti-Semites will come and go, live and die, but world history has shown us the Jewish people will last forever.

May all of those suffering in Pittsburgh be comforted among the mourners of Zion and know sorrow no more.