Over the last few colossally painful weeks I have been thinking a lot about dreams. The month of July is generally my vacation time a break from the weekly pressures of preparing shiurim and so I’ve had the opportunity to read the media’s in-depth analysis of recent tragic events. In addition the long shifts that I’ve spent at the hospital bedside of my grandson in the pediatric ICU at LIJ this month have afforded me many quiet contemplative hours to absorb the depth of pain and despair that has permeated our community. And through it all I keep thinking of the same thing: dreams.
Allow me to share my thoughts.
THE RUSH TO EXPLAIN
The passing of one of the ziknei hador (elders of our generation) is always troubling and painful; to lose three of the ziknei hador in rapid succession is overwhelmingly painful and frightening. What is the meaning for us when three ziknei hador all in the vicinity of 100 years of age leave this world within days of each other? What is the message that HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants us to learn from this national tragedy?
From my reading I’ve gathered that everyone seems to offer a different perspective. To some it is a foreboding sign of terrible things to come. Some suggestion was even made that the timing of Leiby Kletzky’s senseless and brutal murder is a case in point. To others the three-fold loss was just the opposite; these writers mentioned Chazal’s description of the death of tzaddikim as a kaparah (atonement) for the sins of Klal Yisrael much like the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash.
The proliferation of suggestions and conjectures as to the meaning of all this is simultaneously confusing and depressing. While all of these “explanations” indeed have a source in Chazal it’s impossible to know how to apply those sources to our current tragedy.
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