Searching for Meaning in the Har Nof Terror Attack

It breaks my heart to think such terrible things, such evil, could happen in a place I consider a home. It’s the place I became who I am today, where I grew into a Jewish woman who loves Torah and miztvos. Where I found families who offered nothing but love and openness. This place called Har Nof, where I lived for two years.

It is a place of loving-kindness and warmth. A place of hospitality and growth. Its a place that invites in students from all over the world, to learn and inspire. In Har Nof, the community is rich, as one person can rely on another, as they are all united through the love of Torah and chessed(loving-kindness). They embrace one another, as brothers, united like family.

In a place filled with so much good, how could there be such an act of evil.

Now there are families that must go without fathers and wives without husbands.

Now Yeshivos go without Rosh Yeshivas and communities without leaders.

Har Nof, a place of love, a place that breeds only goodness, is now a place with a void as it longs for those holy men who have been taken away.

Har Nof is a place where the purpose of life is crystalized before our eyes, with holy people demonstrating through their daily acts why it is exactly that we are in this world in the first place. One of the few places in this world where I can say this is true, and yet, here in G-d’s holy place, there was evil.

This contradiction is what haunted me first, not understanding how a place of only good, could be a place that saw terror. Terrorists of this sort are afraid of that good, of that holiness of that connection to Hashem. “People” of such evil fear our Kiddush Hashem. My question is not on them, but on Hashem. How can Hashem allow such a thing? Why in our place that we praise Hashem, in our synagogue, in the holiest city in the world, does Hashem allow evil?

It’s not an easy answer, and since our eyes are dimmed in this concealed world and the lack of clarity leaves us wondering, none of us can say we really know the answer. We are not Hashem, and we have only but the sprinkles of truth he leaves us with here on this earth to determine our answer. In reality, we do not know the ways of Hashem, nor can we make sense of this crippling tragedy. Hashem is too great, too well-beyond our comprehension for us to understand. We as mere humans, we cannot understand the reasons for his ways. We can not understand why our Father has left us handicapped with pain, allowing someone to kick down our family again.

But that’s just it. It is the undeniable feeling we are all left with, that not just anyone was hurt or killed, but that it was actually our family.

It is this realization that comes up when I say Modim (thanks). The realization that I do not know what I am grateful for today. I cannot say, I’m grateful it wasn’t me, because was it not? Is not the pain of our Jewish friends and family in Har Nof our pain? I feel it is, in fact, and that for every single Jew we would be far off in saying: I’m glad it wasn’t our family, because in fact it was. In the search for what to be grateful for I struggle today. How can I be grateful for anything when there is this? But alas, I have one answer on the heels of that realization. I am grateful to Hashem for our unity.

Hashem Echad- G-d is One. His Jewish people are One. And as we mourn the painful loss of our family, as we lean on each other to get through these painful days and weeks, we at least go through the pain together, as One.

I don’t begin to presume to know why evil is done in this world, or what Hashem wants us to gain from it. And my heart aches as I write this, knowing we will never know truth or at least not until the days of Moshiach, but perhaps with a little strength and a lot of emunah, we can at least persevere, being a little better to our fellow Jews today than we were the last. And the terrorists who live among us can know that each time they try to tear us down, bringing us further from connection, they just leave us more connected to one another and to Hashem.

So, in our little quaint haven of love for our Creator, in Har Nof that rises above looking over the rest of the world, where the light of Torah illuminates the night, terror cannot stand. With the devastating acts done to our holy Jewish men, we can only ask that Hashem bring us comfort in this terrible time, that he help those wives and children get through this tragedy and that we as a Jewish people rise again, tightening our bond, forbidding evil to break the link we have created between each other and our Creator.

The Brand We Like to Call: YOU

You are part of a major company. In the meeting today, the CEO says, we have a huge problem. We are not working up to our full potential as a company. We are behind the other competing companies and our ratings are behind the forecasted results. Something needs to be done. You start coming up with a new marketing campaign to one up the competitors. After $1 million dollars spent in marketing and 1 month of hard work, your company has finally produced a new a marketing campaign, only to find that after you launch, your CEO is displeased with it. “Something is still missing,” he says. He wants you to find a new solution. What do you do?

This is us on Facebook. After discovering our friends, co-workers, and peers have better looking cover photos and profile pictures, status’ and images than we do, we decide we need to “rebrand” and start again. But just weeks after doing it, we once again find something’s missing, something’s lacking, from our personal brand. We once again feel dissatisfied and start looking for a new image.

Who is the CEO of our brand? It’s our souls telling us to wake up and make a change! The problem is, sometimes we hear this message wrong, and instead of working on our product we work on the packaging. We update our cover photo, we change our profile picture. We do just about anything we can to make our brand newer and shinier. Problem? What about our actual product?!

Our product is ourselves and ourselves might need a little more work than would a profile picture change. We might want to ask ourselves, who do I want to be? What are my goals and am I living up to them? What do I spend my time doing and what should I spend my time doing? Do I like myself? My choices? My actions?

How else can we improve our product? We can challenge ourselves to do one thing thats difficult for us- stand for someone on the bus to have a seat even if its hard, resist the chocolate cake even if you’re craving it, call your grandma even if your tired. Each time we push ourselves a little bit out of our comfort zones, we build our product muscles and make a stronger product.

And what lasts longer? Good marketing or a fabulous product? The more time you spend on refining who you are on the inside, the longer it’ll last. Your CEO will keep quiet longer, give you more freedom to enjoy your new change before insisting on an update. A good product goes a long way.

So, next time we feel that little CEO saying WAKE UP-CHANGE TIME, maybe its time to do a little soul-searching. Resist the Facebook marketing campaign! Imagine how much more time you’ll have to refine the edges of your product when you’re Facebook marketing department is out to lunch!