On December 1, 2001, there was a double suicide bomb attack at the Ben Yehuda Mall in Jerusalem. Ten people were killed and more than 150 were wounded. In response, Yechezkel ("Chezi") Goldberg wrote this essay called, "If You Don't Cry, Who Will?" It concludes:
My friend walked into shul this morning and from the looks on his friends' faces, he could not tell that they had heard what had happened on Ben Yehudah Mall.
When our enemies pound us and we fail to react because we no longer feel the pain, we are truly in a precarious position in the battle to survive.
I know a woman who has no sensitivity in her fingers. When she approaches fire, she doesn't feel the pain. That puts her in a dangerous position because she might be getting burnt and not know it, because her senses don't feel it.
If we are being hurt and we don't feel it, then we are in a very risky position. A devastating 3-pronged suicide attack on Jerusalem's most popular thoroughfare should evoke a cry of pain and suffering from all of us, should it not? Unless of course, we have lost our senses.
And if we have lost our senses, then what hope is there?
I turn on the news to hear of more carnage in Haifa. Sixteen dead. Sixteen of my brothers and sisters.
King Solomon said, "There is a time for everything." Now is the time for crying.
May God protect each and every one of us from our enemies so that we will not have to cry in the future.
This morning, in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood, ten people were again murdered by a suicide bomber. One of them was the same Chezi Goldberg, a father of seven children. There's a photo of him here.
And here's a little bit about what Chezi Goldberg was doing with his life before it was so rudely interrupted blown to bits earlier today, from his personal bio:
Chezi Goldberg is a Jerusalem based therapist specializing in adolescents and families in crisis with the Orthodox community. Chezi made Aliyah to Israel in 1993 from New York City with his family. In New York and Toronto, Canada, Chezi worked with various youth and educational organizations. Since making Aliyah Chezi Goldberg worked with Kidum Hanoar as a street case worker working with street kids in Jerusalem, with Mercaz Harmony International Center for Inclusion as a case manager and family counselor with families of children with various disabilities. In Chezi's Jerusalem clinic he counsels teens and parents, sometimes together, often separately in an effort to help through the continuous mountain of crisis that threaten the fragile fabric of their families. For five years Chezi has written a weekly column in the Jewish Press. This column called LifeLine, is followed by parents and teens around the world in print and on the net at www.jewishpress.com.Chezi is now involved in the establishment of a Hotline for Orthodox Men who have been sexually abused. This Hotline is a breakthrough venture, the first of its kind anywhere.
Now is a time for crying.
Zichrono v'zichronam l'vracha. May his memory and the memories of all the victims be for a blessing.
