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Rejoicing Over Osama is Early<br />
By Rabbi Yitzchok Schochet<br />
Inspiration, Insights & Ideas<br />
Bringing Torah lessons to LIFE!<br />
Op-Ed: "I had a feeling of uneasiness as I listened to reports<br />
of jubilation at Ground Zero over the death of Osama Bin<br />
Laden."<br />
T<br />
wo immediate sensations overcame me when listening to news<br />
of Osama Bin Laden's death this morning.<br />
The first was a twinge of sadness as I flashbacked to that<br />
ineffable event when more than three thousand people lost their<br />
lives.<br />
I, like countless others, vividly recall where I was at that precise<br />
moment. I suddenly felt myself transported back in time, clutching<br />
my then two year old daughter and watching the planes crash into<br />
the World Trade Centre.<br />
Now, 10 years on, I was surprised myself when I felt this wave of<br />
emotion wash through me as I was listening to this "end of chapter."<br />
I'm quite sure many others will have felt these same pangs.<br />
The American media will probably scramble first thing this morning<br />
to get in touch with families who lost loved ones on that tragic day.<br />
For most it will open old wounds though it is probably also an<br />
essential part of a healing process.<br />
The other feeling was one of uneasiness as I listened to reports of<br />
scenes of jubilation at Ground Zero.<br />
Sure, death was the only appropriate punishment for this archterrorist.<br />
The religious rationale for capital punishment is that taking<br />
the life of another is perceived as a crime so hideous that the<br />
murderer has effectively forfeited their right to exist as no practical<br />
punishment can suffice.<br />
Still, the ancient Sages enjoin us, "do not rejoice when your enemy<br />
falls." This quote, which originates with King Solomon in Proverbs,<br />
has several different explanations offered by commentators.<br />
To offer one of my own, I think what the wisest of all men was<br />
suggesting is that while you can feel relief knowing that Pharaoh,<br />
Stalin, Hitler, Bin Laden have been terminated, true jubilation has no<br />
place in a world where evil continues to exist.<br />
We can declare victory in this battle, but the war is yet to be won. It is<br />
only when all evil will be eradicated from this earth that we can revel<br />
in that ultimate joy.<br />
Until then, we can learn an obvious lesson from this historic<br />
moment. An unimaginable amount of time, energy, money and<br />
manpower spanning a decade, has gone into bringing the world's<br />
most wanted man down. Imagine what we could do if we exerted<br />
similar resources to eliminate some of the other evils that pervade<br />
our world – such as poverty, war and hunger.<br />
We don't need to be CIA operatives or Navy seals. We just need to<br />
follow a directive from our Commander in Chief to seek to perpetuate<br />
more goodness and kindness in the world through the simple acts of<br />
reaching through hearts and touching souls.<br />
While the search for Bin Laden took them into the deepest terrains<br />
and mountainous hill of Pakistan he was hiding only 800 meters<br />
away from the country's Capitol. Salvation is so much nearer than<br />
you think.<br />
Recently in the News<br />
16<br />
We look forward to the day when we will be able to utter the same<br />
words as those soldiers who emerged from the compound in<br />
Abbotabbad: "Mission accomplished."<br />
-- Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet is the rabbi of the Mill Hill Synagogue in<br />
north west London and one of the foremost spokesmen for Anglo-<br />
Jewry.<br />
<br />
My Passover Seder in Cusco, Peru<br />
A Rabbinical Student Helps Prepare a Seder for 1200<br />
www.lubavitch.com<br />
A<br />
few weeks before Passover, I logged in to my account on the<br />
Lubavitch Headquarters Shlichus placement website, and saw<br />
that I’d be going with a few friends to run a Seder in Cusco,<br />
Peru.<br />
I contacted the Shluchim in Cusco, Rabbi and Mrs. Ofer and Yael<br />
Kripor to work out the details, then promptly went Pesach shopping. I<br />
had a long checklist of food staples that would not be available in<br />
remote Cusco.<br />
We arrived to Cusco, a beautiful city 11,000 feet above sea level and<br />
found ourselves in a lively, well traveled tourist destination. We had<br />
dinner in the kosher restaurant where streams of backpackers joined<br />
us.<br />
Amid the chaos, Ofer and Yael found time review the details of the<br />
outreach activities we’d be involved in over the next few weeks.<br />
“The restaurant must operate until the Holiday, and then again on<br />
Chol Hamoed--the intermediate days-- from 10am until 10pm so that<br />
any Jewish visitor can have easy access to kosher – and then kosher<br />
for Passover – food. From our recent years’ experience, hundreds of<br />
tourists will be coming in daily for kosher meals, even on erev chag—<br />
in the hours before Passover sets in.<br />
“One of you has to in the restaurant area at all times to help the<br />
visitors with whatever they need, register them for the Seder and<br />
other holiday and Shabbat meals. Someone needs to be in the<br />
kitchen to supervise the kashrut; there’s still shopping to do before<br />
the holiday, and we need to go to immerse “toivel” some new<br />
Passover dishes in the swamp. The kitchens have to be koshered as<br />
well for Passover at least two days before the holiday, so that there is<br />
enough time to prepare food for the Seder.<br />
“On one of the upcoming days, we’ll all have to go to the chicken<br />
farm to slaughter 3,300 pounds of chicken for the Seder night. It’s<br />
tough, dirty work; we’ll have to take off all their feathers, and clean<br />
the guts. On Sunday night we’ll press grapes for fresh juice that we<br />
will use for the Four Cups at the Seder night.”<br />
We lost no time dividing the tasks among ourselves and moved at a<br />
swift pace through Friday. On Friday the matzahs and other Passover<br />
items arrived.<br />
15 Chefs, 30 Hired Hands, 170 Security Agents<br />
Shabbat before the holiday, there were some 100 people in the<br />
synagogue, and some 350 for the meal. These numbers, which<br />
exceeded the usual, gave us some indication of what to expect at the<br />
Seder—said to be the largest in the world.