Blame has no place among believing Jews. But responsibility does
The horrific tragedy in Meron left us shocked and pained. Neither the brain nor the heart can grasp the magnitude of this calamity.
Forty-five souls taken in a storm. A dance of holiness transformed within an instant into a mass eulogy. Widows, orphans, huge voids. What does one say to a mother whose two sons did not return? To a young wife whose baby has not yet learned to utter the word Abba? To a cheder yingel whose rebbi will never again enter the classroom?
In times such as these, when words fail us, silence is a fitting response. When Rav Yonason David, Rosh Yeshivas Pachad Yitzchok and son-in-law of Rav Yitzchok Hutner ztz”l, was asked how the tragedy should be approached, he replied with two words: “Vayidom Aharon.” Precisely within that silence can we hear the call of the Creator.
At the same time, we believe that an event of this magnitude cannot just fade away without leaving an imprint, without effecting a change of some kind. That’s how it’s always been in Am Yisrael: After one singular event, when an elderly man was crushed to death in the Azarah due to the crowding on Pesach in the Beis Hamikdash, that year was remembered as “Pesach Me’uchin” (Pesach of the Crushed) for generations. After one event of multiple deaths caused by panic, Chazal decreed for generations not to go out on Shabbos with a spiked sandal.
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