Rabbi Michoel Green returns to the scene and looks for direction we can take, going forward from the horrific tragedy at Chabad of Poway.
A place I once called a shul where I once worked as a shliach of the Rebbe. In fact, it was my very first shlichus appointment. My fond memories of Lori Kaye and her family are now haunted by her tragic demise al Kiddush Hashem.
After two weeks of numb writer’s block, here are some of my thoughts about this unthinkable attack that the world is still reeling from.
How do we process this tragedy?
Much has been said in way of a Chabad response. Moment of prayer, Sheva Mitzvos, Shabbos candles…
But that’s all klapei chutz, for the outside world. What do we tell our children? What do we tell ourselves?
It’s tragic enough that the attacker sought to murder Jews. Not just some Jews, but ALL Jews, as he had stated in his manifesto. But he didn’t just attack any Jewish site, on any regular day, nor did he murder just any regular person.
It’s truly unfathomable and incomprehensible if we consider the location, date, and victim – Olam, Shana, Nefesh – of this attack:
1. Olam:
The attack targeted a Chabad House, under the auspices of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the leader of our generation. The murder occurred in the foyer of the Chabad House, RIGHT IN FRONT of a huge framed photo of the Rebbe himself.
Not just any Chabad House, but the MOST BEAUTIFUL and spacious Chabad House in S Diego County, and arguably the region’s most beautiful shul period.
S. Diego is arguably the nicest place to live in the United States, and certainly boasts the finest weather, and Poway is one of its nicest suburbs. It also is home to perhaps the closest-knit and most welcoming Jewish communities in the region, and Chabad is the hub of that vibrant kehila. It services local Jews of all ages, has its own mikva, preschool, summer camp, in-house kosher catering, and the list goes on. The beautiful Chabad center is the face of Judaism and all things Jewish in Poway and north-inland S. Diego county.
Chabad of Poway is the prototype for all Chabad Houses. It was here where this unfathomable attack occurred.
2. Shana:
The date was Shabbos Acharon shel Pesach, the day that the ray of Moshiach’s light is revealed (ביום זה מאיר גילוי הארת משיח צדקנו). The day when we envision the times of Moshiach and endeavor to make it a part of our daily life and experience, not just in theory but in actual practice, by eating Seudas Moshiach and ingesting the simcha of geulah, making it part of ourselves quite literally (i.e. דם ובשר כבשרו).
The time was 11:23am, moments before the recitation of the Haftorah, “עוד היום בנוב לעמוד,” that describes the glorious times of the true and complete Redemption through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.
The vicious attack is all the more outrageous if we consider the prophetic words of that very Haftorah, “לא ירעו ולא ישחיתו בכל הר קדשי – They shall neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mount – כי מלאה הארץ דעה את ה’ כמים לים מכסים – for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of G-d as water covers the sea bed.”
The Haftorah promises us “ìà ירעו åìà ישחיתו – they shall not harm and not destroy,” yet here came an attacker to harm and destroy, ירעו וישחיתו! Where? Davka on הר קדשי, in the Mikdash Me’at (Temple in microcosm) of Poway, appropriately perched on an elevated hilltop, on a street honorifically renamed “Chabad Way.” A holy mount indeed.
And as I mentioned above, it was not just the “Mikdash Me’at” of Poway, but the “Mikdash Me’at” of the entire S. Diego County!
The mission statement of every Chabad House is to prepare its community to greet Moshiach b’poel mamosh. In this all-embracing mission of Chabad of Poway, there was no day of the year more important than Acharon shel Pesach, and it was on this very day that the tragedy occurred!
3. Nefesh:
The victim was Lori Gilbert Kaye. As I mentioned, the attacker intended to target all Jews everywhere. The woman he murdered was a precious bas Yisroel, a proud Jewish woman who had returned to her roots thanks to the efforts of the Rebbe’s shliach and shlucha in Poway some twenty-five years ago.
Lori (Leah bas Reuven) embraced her Yiddishkeit with passion and commitment. My wife used to escort her to the mikva. She cherished the observances of Family Purity, Shabbos, and Jewish holidays. She was devoted to helping others, to bikur cholim (visiting and assisting the sick), hachnosas kallah, hachnosas orchim, and other charitable causes.
When I think of Lori, I marvel at how contemporary and mainstream she was. She was no ascetic or eccentric, but an educated, fashionable and accomplished American. She was an investment banker and her husband (יבלח”ט) a medical doctor. As a yuppie couple in the suburbs, they embarked on a path of rediscovering their Jewishness and making it their own. Contemporary and with-it, and proudly steadfast in their Yiddishkeit too.
Like many others at Chabad of Poway, Lori represents the trend of our generation, the young people returning to Hashem due to the Rebbe’s efforts in sending his shluchim worldwide. יכוף כל ישראל לילך בה ולחזק בדקה.
Lori is the holy martyr who represents all of us, Klal Yisroel, all of whom were the intended target of this murderer’s wrathful bullet.
To summarize:
This wasn’t an obscure shooter who happened to snap and ‘go postal,’ but as he asserted in his manifesto, it was a calculated attack on the Jewish People everyone.
The superlative irony cannot be overstated.
He attacked the holiest place (a Beis Chabad, the Rebbe’s house, an edifice whose very raison d’etre is Moshiach) on the most Moshiachdik day (Acharon shel Pesach, the Rebbe’s day, Moshiach’s day), and murdered the holiest martyr, the Rebbe’s Jew, a woman who symbolizes what is unique and unprecedented about our generation, the generation of Geulah.
(Parenthetically, Lori had numerous tambourines, and epitomized the “righteous women” of our generation in whose merit Israel is redeemed)
It struck at the heart of Yiddishkeit, the heart of Chabad, the movement that is entrusted with task of heralding the Geulah, disseminating the wellsprings of pnimiyus haTorah and for making the Torah accessible and relevant right here in the Western Hemisphere, חצי כדור התחתון.
How shall we react?
What is the takeaway?
Shall we simply protest hate and antisemitism? Campaign for Moment of Silence? Call for deeds of goodness and kindness?
Shouldn’t we have been doing that since the Pittsburgh massacre earlier this year? Shouldn’t we have been doing that since the Columbine shooting twenty years ago and even before that?
Surely it’s better late than never, and all efforts to bring about Moment of Silence are commendable, but is that all?
“Lights for Lori” candle-lighting campaign is wonderful, but is Mivtza Neshek our only reaction?
Judging by the unprecedented nature of this bloody assault of a Chabad House and shul, it behooves us to look deeper, והחי יתן אל לבו.
The Miracles at Chabad of Poway
In order to process the enormity of what transpired, let’s also consider the uncanny turn of events. The entire story defies logic.
Among the other three individuals wounded was the shliach himself, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein. After hearing gun shots, he ran into the foyer and came face to face with the murderer, who proceeded to shoot at him repeatedly point blank.
Amazingly, Rabbi Goldstein was not mortally wounded, but was only hit by two bullets, one virtually dismembered his right index finger and the other injured his left index finger.
Heroically, the wounded shliach turned around and ran into the banquet hall to evacuate chidren.
Just then, another open miracle occurred. The gunman’s rifle jammed. This enabled two brave heroes to take action. Oscar Stewart chased the attacker out of the shul, followed by off-duty border patrol John Morales, who had providentially come from afar to recite Yizkor.
Two others were lightly wounded, young Noya Dahan and her uncle, Almog Peretz, who had recently arrived from Sderot, of all places, to seek safety from incessant terrorist bombardment!
And here they came to the safest place, Chabad of Poway, to daven in shul, only to encounter this. Incomprehensible. (And Almog also bravely headed back into the line of fire to rescue children).
The timing of the attack was nothing short of a miracle. Had the attacker arrived fifteen minutes later, he’d have found dozens of youngsters sent out of shul for Yizkor, rachmono litzlan.
The unmistakable miracles attest to the fact that Hashem was undoubtedly protecting the Chabad of Poway congregation from harm. Only Lori Kaye was designated min hashomayim to be the korban to sanctify Hashem’s holy name. And Rabbi Goldstein is permanently scarred with the loss of his index finger.
What is the message here?
Let’s look back to the Haftorah of Acharon shel Pesach for insight:
“And you shall say on that day… ‘Here is the G-d of my salvation, I shall trust and not fear’…”
“הנה א-ל ישועתי” – Hinei means behold, “here He is,” as one indicates with his index finger to point out the obvious.
Point with your index finger!
The shliach’s own father, Rabbi Yosef Goldstein, once composed lyrics to a song, “Hashem is here, Hashem is there, Hashem is truly everywhere.” When singing it, the singer points here, there, all around, gesturing that Hashem’s presence is ubiquitous.
Seeing G-d in the world – in current times in a garb in nature, but in the Redemption, revealed in all His glory – is certainly a crucial component of the Chabad of Poway miracle. Not just seeing G-dliness, but pointing to it. “מראה באצבעו ואומר זה – pointing with one’s index finger as if to say: ‘This is Him.’”
However, the song didn’t end there.
In 5740, Rabbi JJ Hecht composed new lyrics to the same melody. “Am Yisroel, have no fear, Moshiach will be here this year. We want Moshiach NOW! We don’t want to wait.”
The Rebbe enthusiastically encouraged the singing of this song.
Although there was no pointing with these new lyrics, we motioned powerfully with our hand when shouting Now!, as if to say, “we mean business. Right here and right now.”
In the Redemption, every single Jew will point with his/her index finger and say “Here is our G-d – הנה אלקינו זה” (Taanis 31a).
In the most recent year of his talks, the Rebbe frequently cited this teaching and related it to a similar expression from Shir Hashirim Rabbah (2:8), “The voice of my beloved, here comes this one (הנה זה בא) – this is King Moshiach.” Just as each person will point with his finger and say: “This is Him” with regard to seeing the Divine, so too one will point with one’s finger and say: “This is Moshiach…here he comes!”, in a tangible and palpable way.
Two salient examples:
In 5751 (Shabbos Tazria Metzora), the Rebbe instructed us to increase in Torah study on the topics of Moshiach and the Redemption, and giving of tzedakah with express intent to hasten the Redemption. He concluded:
“Let’s hope that just the resolution in the above matter will hasten and effect the actual objective, the revelation and arrival of Moshiach in the immediate present… that we merit to hear the proclamation ‘Here he is’ – (pointing with one’s finger and saying ‘this is he’) – ‘Here comes King Moshiach!’ And here is the Rebbe, my father-in-law, leader of our generation (since ‘Rise and sing, those who repose in the dust’)…
“And most essentially, that all this occurs in the most immediate present, below ten handbreadths, in a manner that we’ll be able to acknowledge and recite the shehecheyanu blessing (over Moshiach’s revelation), ‘(Blessed are You…) Who has given us life, sustained us, and allowed us to reach this present time.’”
In 5752 (Shabbos Vayera), the Rebbe announced that all our Divine service had been completed, and we stand ready to greet Moshiach, and all we need to do now is greet Moshiach in literal actuality. All we need to do, the Rebbe explained, is to embrace the new reality, the revelation of G-dliness, both with regards to oneself and with regards to the world, that everything on earth should attest to its Divine Creator who is bringing it into existence; all of nature and even inanimate objects (אבן מקיר תזעק), and especially Jews who declare “הנה אלקינו זה – Here is our G-d.”
“And since this the case,” continued the Rebbe, “it’s understood that all of one’s affairs and activities are suffused with ideas of Moshiach and Redemption. Even in one’s eating and drinking, one is yearning for the ultimate feast of the Leviathan, Wild Ox and Preserved Wine, to such an extent that he remains hungry for this desired repast, so much so that he complains to G-d that he cannot fulfill the mitzva of reciting grace properly, amidst satiety, i.e. ‘ואכלת ושבעת וברכת – you shall eat, be sated, and bless…’, until G-d seats him at His table for this futuristic feast. Then G-d fulfills his request instantaneously…
“The main thing is, all this will be revealed and actual, so that each one ‘points with his finger and says: this is him – ‘Here, this is King Moshiach! Here he comes,’ ‘here is the Rebbe, my father-in-law, the leader of our generation’ (since ‘Arise and sing, those who repose in dust’), and ‘Here is our G-d in Whom he have hoped, let’s rejoice and celebrate His salvation,’ the joy of the true and complete Redemption, fully revealed and actualized, so that we may recite the shehechiyanu blessing upon it: ‘Who has given us life, sustained us, and brought us to reach this present time.’”
Several things are apparent from the Rebbe’s talks.
“Here is Moshiach” means seeing the obvious, and pointing it out as one points with his index finger. It is akin to seeing the Divine in one’s life and in the world around him. Identifying Moshiach and pointing him out is tantamount to identifying G-d in the world. Lastly, it’s associated with identifying the Rebbe as the leader of our generation.
Clearly the Rebbe is teaching us that we live in times when we can already point with our finger and say: “Here is Moshiach. Here is the Rebbe, the leader of our generation.”
How much clearer does it need to be?
Our job, our shlichus, is to use our index finger and point to G-dliness in the world, to the abounding miracles of our times, and to quite literally point to the Rebbe, the leader of our generation, King Moshiach, and rejoice over the Geulah that is unfolding before our eyes.
The shliach was struck in his index fingers. He represents all of us, all of whom were entrusted with the only shlichus of times, to prepare ourselves, families and communities to literally and actually greet Moshiach. We were entrusted with the mission of pointing to the undeniable fact that ours is the era of Moshiach, the era of the Rebbe, and that Moshiach is arriving, and has already arrived, in our current times.
Use our fingers and point to the unmistakable signposts of Redemption in our times. Let’s point to Lori Gilbert Kaye a”h, and all yidden like her: “ראו גידולים שגידלתם – Look at the precious plants you raised”, is this not a clear example of “ומלאה הארץ דעה את השם” – the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem? The earthly world, in it’s own state, comes to know its Creator. Contemporary and worldly Jews like Lori come to know Hashem on their own turf, out in the suburbs, and to construct a beautiful Mikdash Me’at, a miniature Holy Temple in Poway, that is aesthetically beautiful and welcoming even by Poway’s standards, that spreads the knowledge of Hashem to Poway and throughout all its environs. Is this not clear evidence of the awesome times we live in?
Let’s celebrate the far-reaching success of the Rebbe’s vision, but stay true to our mission.
Moreover, we cannot allow ourselves to feel satisfied with our successes. As long as we aren’t yet seated at the Feast of the Leviathan etc, we are sorely lacking the ושבעת, satiety. The status quo is intolerable and unsustainable!
In current times, especially in established Chabad Houses of affluent communities like Poway’s, shlichus has become multi-generational, with shluchim’s children and grandchildren running the mosdos. Let us not forget for one moment who’s shluchim we are, and whom we represent. Let’s not err to see shlichus as a family enterprise, or as a source of income, chas v’shalom. We are part of something awesome and infinitely larger than ourselves. Our job is to point to this obvious fact. Here is the Rebbe, leader of our generation. Here is King Moshiach.
Let’s point with our finger, “יש נביא בישראל – there is a prophet in Israel,” there is a baal habayis to this Beis Chabad – he is the Rebbe, leader of our generation, King Moshiach.
Move on from the threshold
We stand poised literally at the threshold, no, in the foyer of Redemption. Let’s keep pointing that out, to ourselves, to our family, to our community, to greater society around us.
Of course, let’s encourage Moment of Silence, increased acts of goodness and kindness, Seven Noahide Commandments for all mankind, Lights for Lori, Family Purity, etc (and perhaps even consider increased security in the interim), but let’s do that while keeping our fingers pointed to the tachlis, “Here is Moshiach.” It’s happening here and now.
Lori’s death is an unthinkable tragedy, but she did not die in vain. “And the living shall take to heart.” Our job is clearly defined, to spread awareness of the Redemption and keep our eyes and fingers focused on the goal.
The evils of exile are but a fleeting dream. The gun will jam, the attackers will flee and be neutralized, and we shall proceed unhindered to the true and complete Redemption with the Rebbe, our righteous redeemer at our head, along with the righteous martyrs like Lori who will be immediately resurrected at the beginning of the Redemption, “Rise and sing, you who repose in dust.”
May it be in the most immediate present, teikef umiyad mamosh.■