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Rabbi YY Rubenstein
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London, he lost four children in a fire. A year later he and his wife had a little girl. She passed away a few months later in her sleep. Reb Binyomin said at the time, “I felt that Hashem was trying for some reason to push me away from Him and I kept telling him that He would not succeed.” In my “Little Book,” I write about how you need to find someone with an “equivalence of suffering” when you are in pain. You need to feel that the person you are shedding tears with has shed those same tears too. You need to know they understand what you are going through. But unless you have a heart of stone, unless you don’t have a Jewish heart at all... this awful event has touched all of us. It has certainly touched those of us in Flatbush, then larger Brooklyn, and the rest of the Jews of New York. After that it has broken the hearts of all of klal Yisroel. As I told that first lady who called, something that touches the hearts of the entire Jewish people was meant to affect the entire Jewish people. Of course she then asked me what the affect was meant to be. I have been given insight into this question from my teachers. There was a time when we possessed Prophets who knew precisely what was the message of such catastrophes. They could instruct the Jewish people on how to react and what to improve. We no longer have Prophets. That vacuum is at least partially filled by the Greats of each generation. The burden of guiding klal Yisroel in good times or bad falls on their shoulders. From Jews like me, for whom thinking about what the rest of the Sassoon family members are going through is too upsetting to contemplate, the reaction is meant to be different. My first reaction has to be, what can I do to change myself? How can I improve? Then my wife and I should ask that question of each other. Lastly we should ask our children too. What as a family could we do better...how could we be better? What Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York and
But unless you have a heart of stone, unless you don't have a
Jewish heart at all...this tragedy has affected you as it has me. v’ra lo. Why did He let this terrible thing happen to the Sassoon family? I wrote a book called, “The Little Book for Big Worries...dealing with serious illness.” I felt qualified to write that book. My first wife died of cancer after five years of illness. I have never (thank G-d) dealt with pain like this. I was simply not qualified to offer words of explanation or comfort to the lady who called or anyone else. But I do know of someone who is. Rabbi Binyomin Moskovits shlita is the Rosh Yeshiva of Midrash Shmuel in Yerushalayim. While he and his wife were living in
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n Sunday I flew back from London. I had been speaking there for a week. I live in Flatbush and coming home after a busy schedule is always a nice feeling. It wasn’t this time. I knew if my plane arrived on time, I would have to go to the levaya of seven sweet children. Picturing that banished any nice feelings about returning to New York and I don’t even know the family. Thinking about what the surviving family members were going through was too upsetting to contemplate for even a moment. My plane landed in Newark and of course that meant Staten Island’s traffic jams. I didn’t in the end get to Boro Park for the funeral. It only took a few minutes after I set down my case for the first phone call from someone who was there. It was a lady who had stood in that large crowd of stunned, shocked and heartbroken Jews. She wanted the answer to a question the Jewish people have been asking since Egypt. Jewish children were forced into walls to punish parents who had failed to meet the production targets demanded of them. Moshe witnessed this and asked, “Why does HsShem let terrible things happen to wonderful people?” Tzaddik
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If You have a Jewish Heart
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the rest of klal Yisroel should do and how they should react lies with the Greats. Rashi says so in Matos, “The responsibility for the actions of klal Yisroel lies in the hands of the Greats who can make them change.” The lady at the end of the phone call had one more question, “What about the poor parents?” That is something that will be best answered by someone like Reb Binyomin Moskovits; someone who has an equivalence of suffering. And yet, the question that haunted Moshe Rabbeinu still haunts us... Why do tzaddikim suffer? A tzaddik sometimes suffers because he is a tzaddik. He goes through things we cannot imagine or will not allow ourselves to imagine, and then says things like, “I felt that Hashem was trying to push me away. I kept telling Him He would not succeed.” I have not the slightest doubt that this tragedy has happened to tzaddikim. I don’t know why, I am not a Prophet. I am certainly not one of the Greats of the generation. I am happy to leave how Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York and klal Yisroel should react to them. But unless you have a heart of stone, unless you don’t have a Jewish heart at all...this tragedy has affected you as it has me. This shocking, distressing and heartbreaking event has touched all of us. I want this family of tzaddikim to know, I am determined to work on myself and become a better Jew because of their tragedy. If you have a Jewish heart, you will too. Gila bas Frances Tzipporah and Tzipporah bas Gila should have a refuah sheleima.