On Tuesday, Yom Shlishi, a day referred to as doubly good in the Torah, the hands of Esau tried to silence the voice of Yaakov. With unmitigated brutality, two Arabs stormed into a shul in Har Nof, Jerusalem and cut down four men praying, and a policeman who was a first responder. They came armed with meat cleavers, knives, and guns and soullessly robbed us of four precious souls. Men who are husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, neighbors and friends.
They made a massacre in Hashem’s orchard, watering the ground with our blood. They tried to silence the voice of Yaakov. We cannot let them succeed. Four widows, and twenty four orphans shed rivers of tears now, plus the widow and orphan of the Israeli-Druze officer, cry out. We cannot be silent.
The raw, searing pain imprinted on our souls must be propelled into action. It is the only way to heal. To cover our wound with silence, and inaction creates a festering infection that will explode again and again. Every one of us feels the pain from the deepest part of our soul. Every one us hugs our loved ones a little harder in the wake of the massacre. Every one of us is looking for something to do.
Their names run through my mind. Dahlia. Chaya Zissel. Eyal, Gilad, and Naftoli. Almog Shiloni. Shelly Dadon. Mercaz HaRav yeshiva. Mumbai Chabad. Sbarros. Nava Appelbaum. The Fogels. The 1929 Chevron massacre. It doesn’t end. The faces flash, the heart sighs, the eye cries. It is time for Hashem to save us from the hands of our enemies, and time for us to find our voices and speak. Our words and our actions are our weapons, from the spiritual armor of Torah and mitzvos, to the physical armor of action…we must arise, awaken, and go forth.
Derech Chaim is a movement of the people, Am Echad, to reclaim both the land that Hashem has promised us and our lives. The world does not care that they rob us of our lives. The world has never cared and will never care…until Moshiach. And until we show that we will not be silent for slaughter. The Arabs feel so complacent in their ability to literally get away with murder that they march into our homes and houses of prayer and murder us.
Who can be shocked? Why are you shocked? History has proven time and again that they hate us and will kill us. The choice now is ours.
In addition to the absolute necessity of increasing our Torah and mitzvos, we must take practical steps to save our lives and the lives of our children. It is up to us. Neither the world nor our current government will step up to the task. The lives of our beloved chayalim in the recent Gaza war were sacrificed because of governmental policies. Policies for polite war. We are not seated at a table engaged in a game of Battleship. We are seated at the cusp of the era of Moshiach, engaged in a war of Eternal Truth to overcome and transform the forces of evil that seek to eradicate us.
1. Join Derech Chaim.
2. Employ only Jews “avodah Ivrit” for nearly all these attacks are being perpetrated by Arabs employed on site or nearby, even convicted terrorists or their family members.
3. Stop releasing terrorists or their bodies.
4. Stop luxurious prison settings and financial payouts.
5. Revoke citizenship and expel terrorists and every single member of their family.
6. Become informed on what a government according to the Torah is and take all possible steps to join in forming one (See Derech Chaim).