Rav Eyashiv is by-pass surgery survivor who bli ayin hara is in his upper nintees and walks very slowly with a walker. Rav Finkel has suffered for years with severe Parkinson’s. They both attended the levaya with unavoidable shoving and heat. Will Garnel please apologize for his accusation of “non-action”? Why on earth did you make such an assumption?

We need not be overly pollyannish but we need to also know the Klal Yisroel is EXTREMELY GREAT! The Charedim, the Religious Zionist, baal habatim, yeshiva and seminary students, all of Klal Yisroel. And assuming bad things about them is not a simple matter at all.

Nu? So writing something positive or negative is also a form of acting, is it not?

Ori: Good point. What have you done today to increase the unity of the Jewish people? Can you think of something extra you could have done but didn’t, and if so will you do it tomorrow?

You’re under a misimpression that the Belzer Rebbe’s was a solitary act. Check around the Jewish Web and you’ll see this was far from the case.

How many people that attend “inspiring” Shabbatons make it to shul for the 6:45 am minyan the next Monday morning? How many chasidim will look at their dati leumi brothers with more understanding and a greater feeling of family because of the Belzer’s inspiring example?

The greatness of the Belzer is not in that his act was inspiring but that he acted. Period. Instead of perfunctory statements or expressions of grief, he conducted himself with holiness and ACTED as a Jew should. And that is what sets him in stark relief to all the others who simply wrote stirring words and expressed heartfelt sympathies.

And all he did was what any Jew who was able to should have done - comfort the mourners and visit the sick. Have we sunk so low as a people that a visit by a leader from one group to the stricken of another is a cause for inspiration?

Is it not enough that there is literally a whole world out there working towards our destruction? Can this tragedy lead not just inspiring thoughts but actual Jewish deeds?

We should not be inspired by the Belzer’s acts, may he and his family be blessed with long life, health and happiness, but rather we should ACT like he did. Then something positive will have come of all this.

“Families of the eight kedoshim just got up from shivoh this morning. We are fast forgetting what happened in the Darkei Tzion just one short week ago. We must be mishtateif b’tzaarom - feel the pain and anguish of the parents, siblings, families, and friends of these eight young Bnai Torah who were brutally murdered with Gemorras in their hands (and we must not forget the dozens of wounded).
These young men had dreams. They dreamt they would grow up and do something for Klal Yisroel — do something for the honor of the Ribbono shel Olam — and their lives were ended for one reason only: they were Yehudim,and there is a whole wide world of people who do not want that.
There is Amalek here today - let us not forget that, and let us realize what they truly want for us. Listen to the krioh this Shabbos, of Parshas Zochor very attentively; it will make a great difference.”

A Gutten Shabbos,
Yaakov Hopfer

“We Are All Merkaz Harav
by Avrohom Birnbaum

Can dry ink on paper describe the magnitude of the tragedy?
A friend who attended the levaya of the eight kedoshim murdered in cold blood at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva last week told me that although being in the journalism business in Eretz Yisroel has unfortunately afforded him many occasions to observe and attend many tragic events, he can not recall a maamad such as last week’s levaya. The outpouring of grief, the pure Yiddishe tzaar, the tears and the anguish were so powerful and tragic that no person with a heart could remain unmoved.
No person at that tragic levaya of eight innocent bochurim could return to mundane, everyday life. None of the attendees could return home to eat lunch, read the paper, or even engage in the pursuit of parnassa. All felt the instinctive pull to bury their tear-stained faces in a Gemara, Tehillim, or anything that could invoke Divine mercy and beg Hashem, “Mi she’omar l’olamo dai, yomar litzaroseinu dai.”
For those not at the levaya, just the media pictures of eight figures wrapped in tachrichim lined up next to each other were heartbreaking. As ehrliche Yidden, we have an obligation to be noseh b’ol, to share the burden of tragedy with those directly affected.
Just think of the parents, the fathers and mothers of these bochurim, who raised these children from infancy, merited to watch them grow and blossom, and sent them to learn in yeshiva…
Human nature is such that, rightfully or not, we will eventually move on and forget about this tragedy.
Their parents won’t. Theirs is a life sentence.
Every night, when going to sleep, the mothers and fathers of these bochurim will face their pillows with torturous feelings of grief, guilt and thoughts of “where would he be now if he was still alive?” The pain that is their lot and will continue to be their lot is something that we, as Jews, are obligated to feel. Their pain should be our pain. Their tragedy is our tragedy. It is the most elementary duty of being noseh b’ol im chaveiro…”

This would fit in well with Loberstein’s column.

The kiddush Hashem of the Belzer’s actions only cast into greater relief the non-action of all his colleagues. Is he a modern day Noach, the single righteous man in his society?

Thanks a zillion.