Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Massacre at Merkaz Harav: What you can do

A message from Dan Illouz of Tzipiyah.com

After the terrorist attack on the students of Merkaz HaRav, many of us are asking ourselves: What can we possibly do?

Rav Kook, the founder of the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva had given the answer long ago:
"-The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.
-They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.
-They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom. "
Arpilei Tohar p. 39

Every time a person dies, we say kaddish for him. The Kaddish expressed the greatness of God. Why should such a prayer be recited when a person dies?
Because the Jewish response to tragedy is to build on the destruction, the fill the void with holiness.
We are organizing a major fundraising campain for the victims of the terrorist attack at Merkaz Harav. We will be fundraising to publish a book in their memory which will compile articles written by different prominent rabbis on the subject of Unity. At the end of the book will be a memorial for each of the victims.

We had many ideas for fundraisers, and none were perfect. This one is not perfect either. Still, we opted for this one since:

1. It will be a lasting memorial for those killed, not something which goes away after a while.
2. It will bring a lot of merit to their souls whenever people read words of Torah from these books.
3. It is something everyone can unite towards.

Ideologically, it also seems like an appropriate response – fighting darkness with light.
Our website is set up at http://www.merkazmemorial.com/

Please visit it and make generous contributions. Please tell everyone you know about this project. Blog about it, email your friends, tell people. Together, we can make a difference.

No comments: