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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:MUMBIA:MARTYRS
Shalom:
I had sent out an email (scroll below), suggesting that folks consider, not demanding of them, saying psalms for those of our people being held as hostages in Mumbai. Of course now we know that the mourner's Kaddish is the prayer that is warranted.
Interestingly, the email brought some unexpected responses. Many wrote to ask what actions they could take. This is very Talmudic as the Midrash relates how when Moses heard the Egyptians were chasing after him and the Israelites, he asked God if he should declare a day of fasting and prayer, and God sternly told him, that ''now is not the time for prayer, but the time for leadership and action.''
But I received one email that is a recurrent question Jews ask when ever trauma befalls us as a people or as individuals. Here it is: ''Arthur, what possible explanation can you have for this tragedy and the existence of an active God, influencing our lives? R--- L---''
Now this email was quite respectful compared to two others. One told me flat out that he did not believe in God and to not send him any more emails. The second berated me for using the word God without a hyphen. That I answered politely, as in electronic mail, we are not writing anything, including the Deity's name, and only if one prints the email, with God's name on it and then treats the paper disrespectfully, is there an issue. It was interesting that in both of those, their concern was for something ritual or anti-ritual and not about human life.
But for "RL's", I wrote the following answer:
Dearest R------:
How can we say God exists, when the world is full of such tragedy?The best answer that I can give as a rabbi, from our sages, and from my insufficient experience, is that we as humans are created with freedom of choice by God.While we can ask God for help in managing our lives so that we can live happy, joyous and free, even in what the Talmud calls ''an upside down world'', [ where good people are sometimes treated poorly, and bad people are many times rewarded], there are many who do not ask God for this aid, and chose to deny Him.These folks can listen to what Judaism calls, the yetzer ha ra, the evil inclination, which all of us have within us.While Judaism teaches us to respond to hate with love, others can respond to their feelings of hate with violence...as we have unfortunately witnessed in Mumbai.God is only active in our lives IF we invite Him into our lives and allow Him to influence us. The Talmud teaches that as ''a man wishes to go, God will let him.'' Meaning that the Jewish God, unlike the Hebrew God, does not intervene. If one wishes to murder one person or 6 million people, God is not going to stop him.If one however realizes he has a defect of character, and wants God to help him remove this from him, God will do this, with the person doing the work of chesbon ha nefesh, tashlik, vidui, teshuvah, tephila, meditation, and mitzvoth.While we can watch the TV and read the papers and see a tragedy, of 20+ terrorists following their yetzer ha ra, we can also view the same and see God working in the hearts of so many humans the world over, who find these behaviors deplorable, and are sending aid to India and to the Jewish community of India specifically.When our sages were asked ''Where is God?", their answer was "Where ever man lets Him in."God suffers along with man, our sages teach, when man suffers. We are created in God's image and hence if we hurt, God must hurt. The concept of Tikun Olam, is about repairing the suffering -God, and uncovering the sheathed Holy sparks of His face, by doing acts of loving kindness to one another.As Jews, we do not just 'believe' in God, we must learn to experience God in our lives. This happens with faith and trust and time. When we live a life with an attitude of gratitude, blessing Him for His so many gifts to us each day, we begin to understand that the rotten things that people do to one another, come from their spiritual disconnection from God.May God bless you and your family and please have a joyous Shabbat.Please feel free to call me and meet with me any time you have a spiritual question.Many Blessings,ArthurRabbi Arthur Segal (there are essays here with more information to this and other spiritual questions, especially the Talmudic concept of God placed on trial).
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
JEWISH RENEWAL
HILTON HEAD ISLAND,SC
BLUFFTON,SC
SAVANNAH, GA
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:13:40 -0500
Subject: Five hostages killed in Jewish center
Boker Tov Chaverim---Good Morning My Friends:As of 1015 AM eastern time, our brethren inside the Jewish center in Mumbai are still held hostage. The battle to release them via the Indian Army and Navy assault teams continues. We know that 5 Jews have been killed. We also know that two Americans have been killed. Whether these two Americans are also Jewish, we do not yet know. Whether the assault is over, and the Rabbi and his Rebetizin were two of those killed, has not been announced. Nor has there been an announcement of any Jewish hostages rescued.Our sages teach: "Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh ba Zeh" "All Israel is responsible for one another." (Talmud Bavli Tractate Shavuot 39a).Years ago when at Penn and we heard of the terrorists rounding up Israelis at the Munich Olympics we spontaneously ran to the Campus Green and demonstrated. No one had to ask us. Well I cannot run anymore and the days of mass demonstrations in the USA seem to be via email 'forwards.'The world is ''not standing idly by'' as it seemed to do 37 years ago. Jews have been a part of Indian society for 2500 years living in peace with its neighbors. Ellen and I have been blessed to be there many times, and many of the homes around the Taj Hotel are Jewish homes. We had a Shabbat meal at Col. Sassoon's home one block from the Taj. And the docks where these terrorists snuck into Mumbai by water are called the Sassoon Docks. We have been to Indian-Jewish weddings, brit milah, and had Pesach at the Chief Rabbi's in Delhi. Jews in India do very well there and are in government and business positions as high as we are in the USA. In fact, on the Indian Government official calendar, all Jewish holidays, including our minor ones, and including our Shabbat and Havdallah, are listed, along with Hindu ones.I invite you to consider ,please, reciting psalms 20, 107, 121, 122, 150 for our fellow Jews who hopefully are still alive, and for those who wish to pray for them, using their Hebrew names, they are: Gavriel Noach ha Rav ben Freida Bluma, Rivka bas Yehudit and their baby, Moshe Tzvi ben Rivka. In addition, there were news reports which stated there are an additional 5-10 Jews wounded inside the Jewish Center. Getting accurate information is difficult. (Note: when we pray for health or deliverance, we do so in one's mother's name). Please also consider saying Kadish for those who have now become martyrs for just being Jews.Thank you,Have a blessed Shabbat,Please forward to your list of Jewish friends, if you are moved to do so,ArthurAvriel Yahudah ha Rav ben Abraham ha LeviI will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.Surely He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and the noisy pestilence.(Ps 91)updated 1 minute agoFive hostages killed in Jewish center, chaos at hotel
- Story Highlights
- NEW: Five hostages have been killed at Jewish center, Israeli spokesman says
- NEW: Indian official again suggests that terrorists came from Pakistan
- Police say standoff at Oberoi Hotel has finally ended; 30 bodies found
- One gunman still throwing grenades and shooting at police in Taj Mahal Hotel
- Next Article in World »
MUMBAI, India (CNN) -- The bodies of five hostages have been found at a Jewish center in Mumbai, according to reports, and fighting still rages at a hotel in the city two days after terrorists launched a series of deadly attacks.
Israeli Foreign Ministry official spokesman Haim Hoshen told an Israel news station five bodies had been found.
CNN's Indian sister network, CNN-IBN, also reported the deaths and said the siege at the center -- Chabad House -- was close to ending.
Gunfire and explosions continued to ring out from the building.
Earlier, police said they had cleared the Oberoi Hotel, killing two militants and freeing hundreds of trapped guests. They found 30 bodies and were searching the building.Watch more on hostage deaths »
However, fighting continued to rage at the Taj Mahal Hotel -- where one gunmen was reportedly still holed up.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor told CNN-IBN the gunman was shooting and throwing grenades at security forces.
Gafoor said most of the attackers had been heavily armed.
"They were carrying an AK-assault rifle, one or two hand guns, and grenades."
Outside, onlookers and reporters cowered behind cars as gunfire was exchanged and explosions could be heard. An AFP journalist was reportedly injured.
The death toll from Wednesday's attacks in nine locations was 155 -- an Italian, a Briton and two Americans were among the at least 15 foreigners killed -- with a further 327 injured, CNN-IBN reported.
R.R. Patel, the Maharashtra home minister, said 11 gunmen had been killed and another captured alive. Fourteen police were dead.
CNN's International Security Correspondent Paula Newton said UK authorities were checking reports that some of the attackers were of British origin.
Meanwhile, Pranab Mukherjee, the external affairs minister for Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is located, said the preliminary investigation "indicates that some elements in Pakistan are involved."
"I can't tell you the details since the investigation is going on," he said. "Until the investigation is complete, it will be difficult to say where they came from and how they came."
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also indicated the gunmen came from Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, in a telephone call with his Pakistani counterpart Friday.
In response, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said he would send the chief of his country's intelligence agency to help with the investigation.Don't Miss
The gunmen were young men in their 20s who "obviously had to be trained somewhere," a member of the Indian navy's commando unit said Friday.
They fired at guests "with no remorse" and knew the layout of the hotels well enough to "vanish" after confronting security forces, the commando said.
"Not everybody can fire the AK series of weapons, not everybody can throw a grenade like that," the commando said outside the Taj hotel. "It is obvious that they were trained somewhere."
The shell-shocked city woke Friday to television images of Indian soldiers rappelling down ropes from military choppers on to the roof of Chabab House, which houses the Mumbai headquarters of the Chabad community, a Hasidic Jewish movement.
Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, the city's envoy for the community, and his wife were believed to be inside. A cook at the center, who had barricaded herself in a room, grabbed the couple's 2-year-old son and escaped with another person, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
The identity of the attackers remained a mystery. Police said they came by boats to the waterfront near the Gateway of India monument and the two hotels.
The Indian navy, stepping up patrols on the country's western coast after the attack, was questioning the crew of the MV Alpha. Authorities suspect the attacks originated from the ship, which they believe is from Karachi.
Karachi police said they had no evidence the attackers departed from their city.
The Press Trust of India, citing Union Cabinet Minister Kapil Sibal, reported the gunmen had worked for months to prepare, even setting up "control rooms" in the two luxury hotels that were targeted.
Indian authorities said no one had claimed responsibility, although the Deccan Mujahideen took credit in e-mails sent to several Indian news outlets.
Interpol said it would send a delegation to India.
"When such coordinated and planned terrorist attacks are carried out against international targets and when a country's head of government states there are suspected 'external linkages', the police in the country concerned require international assistance," said Interpol's Secretary General Ronald K. Noble
Comments: 33
Last update - 17:18 28/11/2008 Israeli diplomat: Five hostages killed at Chabad center in Mumbai By Anshel Pfeffer, Barak Ravid, Amos Harel and Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies Tags: Israel News 
The bodies of five hostages were found Friday after Indian security forces stormed the besieged Chabad center in Mumbai, Israeli
diplomat Haim Choshen told Israeli television by telephone from the scene.
"Five bodies of hostages have been found inside the Chabad House," Choshen told Channel 2. "We still don't know whose bodies."
A spokesman for Israeli Orthodox rescue service ZAKA, Motti Bukchin, quoting colleagues at the scene, told the same station: "We now know about the bodies of five hostages, and another two bodies of terrorists."
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India's National Security Guards chief said earlier that commandos found two bodies at the Chabad center, which appeared to be those of hostages.
Chabad first raised the alarm Wednesday night, when city-wide attacks began in Mumbai, saying it had failed to make contact with Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his Israeli wife, Rivka. At least 146 people have been killed and hundreds others wounded in the attacks, which appeared to target locations popular with foreigners.
Israel's ambassador to India, Mark Sofer, told Sky News on Friday evening that it was unclear how people had been inside the building when the siege began.
J.K. Dutt also told Indian television that the commandos had killed two militants in operations at the center.
"We have neutralized two terrorists," Dutt said. "Along with that we have also found two bodies. Those bodies appear to be of hostages."
ZAKA also said Friday that staff it had sent to Mumbai to help at the siege believed that hostages in the center had died.
"Apparently the hostages did not remain alive," the Zaka service said in a brief statement quoting its staff in Mumbai. It did identify the hostages nor say how many may have died. A rabbi and his wife had been believed to be held hostage.
Earlier a huge crowd of onlookers cheered as a group of Indian commandos left the center, prompting local television channels to announce the operation to dislodge the gunmen had ended.
Some people punched the air with their fists. Other commandos chatted on the roof of the building, looking relaxed.
The Mumbai police chief said the operation was still in its final stages, while Dutt said the third floor of the building had not been secured.
A short way across the city, frequent gunshots and explosions also rang out from the luxury Taj Mahal hotel as elite commandos fought cat-and-mouse battles with a lone gunmen.
The security forces blew a hole in the side of the Chabad building, hours after they were dropped by helicopter on the roof. Heavy gunfire and explosions were later heard at the site.
The building was cloaked with thick smoke after the blast, television pictures showed.
Sofer said earlier Friday he believed six or more Israeli nationals were still being held hostage by gunmen at the Chabad center.
"We are estimating, and it's pretty much an educated guess, somewhere around six, maybe a little bit more, but I don't have complete information on that," he told Times Now television.
"A couple of days ago an Indian caregiver managed to escape with a tiny baby belonging to the rabbi in Chabad House, but the rabbi and his wife are still inside."
Heavily armed Indian commandos, their faces covered by balaclavas, rappelled from helicopters onto the roof of the Chabad center in what television reports said was an assault by the paramilitary National Security Guard to flush out the militants.
Sharpshooters in buildings opposite the headquarters of Chabad began shooting early Friday as a helicopter circled overhead.
A Reuters witness said troops fired into the building, apparently to provide cover, as commandos made at least three sorties and took up positions on the roof.
The commando attack on the Chabad headquarters was punctuated by gunshots and explosions from within the building as forces cleared it floor by floor, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
One camouflaged commando came out with a bandage on his forehead, while soldiers fired smoke grenades into the building and a steady stream of gunshots reverberated across the narrow alleys.
Hundreds of onlookers, many with binoculars, crowded onto roofs and in narrow alleys of south Mumbai, trying to catch a glimpse of the dramatic commando assault.
Israeli security officials refused to speculate on whether an attack on Mumbai's Chabad center was specifically aimed at Jews.
But said Sofer, out of the thousands of building in Mumbai, it was hard to believe that the terrorists had stumbled by chance upon the Jewish center.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed the attacks on militant groups based in neighboring countries, usually meaning Pakistan, raising fears of renewed tension between the nuclear-armed rivals.
"It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country," he said in a televised address. "We will take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts."
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called her Indian counterpart, Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, to offer Israeli assistance in dealing with the terror attacks.
"Israel, India and the rest of the free world are positioned in the forefront of the battle against terrorism and extremists," Livni said. "Unfortunately, we were harshly reminded of this once again on Thursday. The struggle against terror must be a communal struggle, and compels us to improve our cooperation on this front."
Mukherjee promised Livni the Indian authorities would extend any assistance necessary to evacuate Israelis from the terrorist attack sites and in communicating any relevant information regarding developments in Mumbai to the Israeli authorities.
"I want to see an end to this incident and for all Israelis to be freed safely, but the situation is still tense and there is a great deal of uncertainty," Livni said.Brooklyn Rabbi and Wife Caught in AttacksIn 2003, barely out of their teens and newly married, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, moved from Brooklyn to the coastal city of Mumbai, India, to manage a mix of educational center, synagogue and social hall known as a Chabad house, one of about 3,500 outposts around the world run by the Lubavitch Hasidic movement.
The place soon became a year-round magnet for Israeli backpackers and the Jewish businessmen and tourists who flock to Mumbai, as well as for the Iraqi and Indian Jews who live there. Mrs. Holtzberg served visitors coffee and homemade kosher delicacies. Rabbi Holtzberg always offered a helping hand to someone who was sick or stranded, often calling worried parents or spouses miles and miles away to calm them.
On Wednesday, the Holtzbergs' Chabad house became an unlikely target of the terrorist gunmen who unleashed a series of bloody coordinated attacks at locations in and around Mumbai's commercial center.
Firing grenades and automatic weapons, the men also took the Holtzbergs and at least six other people hostage in the Chabad house, according to friends of the Holtzbergs. The couple's 2-year-old son, Moshe, and a cook managed to escape about 12 hours into the siege, the friends said. The boy's pants were soaked in blood when he emerged. By late Thursday afternoon in New York, there was still no news of his parents' fate.
It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene. But if the center lacked the size and prominence of the attackers' other targets, the news of its fate reverberated among Chabad houses in Australia, Argentina, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Norway and 67 other countries.
But perhaps nowhere was it felt more strongly than in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the nerve center of the Lubavitch community and the neighborhood where Rabbi Holtzberg grew up. At the group's world headquarters on Eastern Parkway and Kingston Avenue, men filed into the synagogue all day to pray for the Holtzbergs' safe release. In a separate room, women swayed on their knees as they read the Torah. In the offices upstairs, rabbis and friends of the couple manned telephones, staying in contact with a sizable network of volunteers at the house in Mumbai, waiting for news.
"We were up all night, trying to sort fact from fiction, figure out what their status is," Rabbi Dovid Zaklikowski, 28, a friend of Rabbi Holtzberg since high school, said in an interview.
The Lubavitchers' headquarters occupies a wide five-story building that is the tallest on the block. It is the site of an annual conference for the emissaries who run Chabad houses. This year's conference ended last weekend, but many of the participants stayed behind to spend Thanksgiving with relatives in the area.
On Thursday, they found themselves drawn to the synagogue, even those who said they knew Rabbi Holtzberg only by name. Someone scribbled an English translation of the Hebrew sign affixed to the temple's doors, bearing the couple's names. The translation read, in part: "Think positive thoughts and good will come."
"For our movement, this is a very somber day," said Rabbi Sagee Harshefer, who heads the Chabad house in Ness Ziona, Israel, about 12 miles south of Tel Aviv. "But there is hope."
Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were born in Israel, though he and his siblings were brought to Crown Heights as children by their parents. The couple married a year before they went to Mumbai, formerly Bombay, to fulfill a role that Rabbi Zaklikowski said fit perfectly with Rabbi Holtzberg's personality.
"He has a huge heart, always willing to help somebody in need," the rabbi said. "It's only natural that he would give himself to the community."
Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, who directed the Chabad emissaries' conference, said of Rabbi Holtzberg, "He is a very dynamic, energetic individual" who turned Mumbai's Chabad house into "a home away from home for thousands and thousands of Jews."
At midafternoon in New York on Wednesday, the first reports of the attacks in Mumbai hit the news, but no one in the Crown Heights Lubavitch community knew exactly where they had occurred — and no one suspected that the Chabad house had been hit. Still, some friends wanted to make sure that Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife and son were all right, so they phoned. There was no answer.
Yacov Young, Rabbi Holtzberg's cousin, said he had been at home in Crown Heights, celebrating the birth of his son and a brother-in-law's marriage, when his phone rang about midnight.
"Our hearts sank when we heard the bad news," Mr. Young said as he dashed into the synagogue.
Rabbi Holtzberg's parents, Noah and Freida, spent most of Thursday holed up in their house in Crown Heights, but left for Israel late in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Rivka Holtzberg's parents, Rabbi Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg, who live in Israel, boarded a plane to Mumbai. They were accompanied by a crew from the Israeli relief organization ZAKA, said Dov Maisel, a medic with the group, by telephone from Israel.
"They are on a mission to get their grandson, but they are very, very nervous" about their daughter and son-in-law, Mr. Maisel said. "Some 24 hours have passed, and they have heard nothing."
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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
JEWISH RENEWAL
HILTON HEAD ISLAND,SC
BLUFFTON,SC
SAVANNAH, GA
