Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Horror Revisited

Today's murder of three innocent Arabs by someone ostensibly trying to stop the retreat from Gaza is an indictment of our society here in Yosh. Yes, he's a lone murderer (unlike the Hamas). Yes, he's probably become unglued by the terrific pressures we're living with. BUT THAT"S NO EXCUSE! If people are on the edge, their communities are obliged to help them get help. That's how you prevent tragedies, as much as possible. Small communities under horrible depression need to invite therapists to help treat that depression.

Obviously, not every act of violence is preventable and Hamas/Fatah/Jihad/Hizbullah need no excuse to kill Jews. Still, we need to remind ourselves that more is expected of us, especially those who presume to be religious. We put fences around our rooves to prevent people from being hurt. We need to do the same to prevent others from committing outrages.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

good point.
Yesha will continue to be called yesha.

mnuez said...

What yuou write is so obvious that it truly needn't be written. Mah li eeto? One crazy guy goes and kills people and we all need to klap al chait? No other people on earth think along these lines - and the fact is that every mitnachel speaking against it in the world won't change the world press's headlines a ki hu zeh, the impression presented will still be that of this guy being a regular sample of the "settlers".

The facts however, sad or happy are that the reason why we respond with this collective "yadeinu lo shafchu et hadam hazeh!" is because we are rachmanim bnei rachmanim and we ALWAYS feel guilty.

A little note for you jews though: Feeling guilty all the time makes you look pretty guilty.