parkland & perspective
HaMakom y’nechaem etchem b’toch she’ar aveilei tzion v’Yirushalayim. “May the One Who Is in All Places comfort you, together with the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.”
This is the traditional Jewish response to death and mourning: a wish that mourning in community — that knowing our ancestors felt a grief all too similar to the grief we feel today, after the mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida — will bring us closer to comfort. In this short prayer, this heartfelt wish, we call upon G-d as “HaMakom”: literally, The Place. Timeless. Boundless. Everywhere.
And yet so many folks felt isolated, alone, and unmoored when hearing of the death of seventeen people, many of them teenagers, who had expected simply to go to school and learn.
What can our community do in response to such senseless violence and hatred?
We approach the holiday of Purim, on which we read the Book of Esther. Esther’s story is one of bravery in the face of a very real threat of mass violence. And one of the Scroll’s most-discussed features in our tradition is the absence of the Name of G-d in the tale. Where is G-d when Haman threatens to kill an entire people? Where is G-d when Esther finds herself chained in marriage to an inept king?
So many commentators respond: G-d’s silence does not mean G-d’s absence. Rather, G-d is present in the amazing coincidences that lead to Esther’s rise in influence and power; G-d is present in her bravery in revealing her true identity; G-d is present in Mordecai’s refusal to bow to any earthly despot.
Perhaps today, one week and a day after Parkland — after more than eighteen shootings in the United States since the beginning of 2018 — G-d is in our response. Or, to put it differently, G-d is a call for us to respond. As in the Scroll of Queen Esther, G-d calls us today to educate ourselves in our fear and our anger and our despair, and to use what we learn to speak out against violence in all its forms.
how can we heed the call to action?
- Attend the Vigil for Parkland sponsored by Global Spiritual Life tonight, 2/22 at 5pm
- Attend the march for our lives organized by student survivors, in NYC or DC on 3/24 or donate to the cause
- Write a letter to the students of Stoneman Douglas High School
Bronfman Center staff members are always here if you need to process these events. NYU’s Wellness Exchange is another resource.
This is a message from Rabbi Nikki DeBlosi & the Bronfman Center.
