First Response

That’s always the question — but this week, after a bein hazmanim replete with tragedy, it was harder than ever to answer. Somehow these losses felt especially painful, because so many came at moments of family togetherness — precisely what we savor most during those precious, golden weeks of summer vacation.

As we read headline after horrific headline, we wondered: What is our role? What do readers expect from their weekly magazine when the week that’s just passed is punctured by so much pain?

As feeling and thinking Jews, we know there’s a measure of indifference and cruelty in processing so much tragedy — so many lives irrevocably altered — without feeling that we, in response, must change. So we inevitably get letters from readers trying to parse the events and intuit what we as a community must do differently. Which kabbalah to take on. Which behavior to correct.

But we’re not an Urim V’Tumim. It’s not our job to say “this happened because of that,” and “because we suffered this, we must change that.” We do our best to provide a weekly blend of information, inspiration, entertainment, and to give you some insight or thought to store in your pocket for the week ahead. At the same time, we assume that you have your own rav or rebbe, your mentor or framework, your internal spiritual compass. To divine the precise cosmic meaning of a tragedy? That’s not within the ambit of a glossy family magazine.