Posts Tagged ‘Meron’
Kulam Kedoshim? The Status of Those Who Died at Meron.
- As we approach the end of the shiva period for those who died at Meron last week, I was asked this morning whether it is correct or incorrect to refer to them as kedoshim.
- It is true that they were not martyred for remaining true to their belief in God in the face of persecution, and that at least in recent decades the phrase kedoshim has at least largely been reserved for people who suffered martyrdom of one kind or another.
- On the other hand, they were each engaged at the time in an expression of personal spiritual commitment by attending an event which was for them an expression of religious devotion and belief.
- So if it can bring any shred of comfort to those they left behind to commemorate them as kedoshim, I cannot see that it is in any sense an unfitting dignity for people who died in the course of what was for them an act of spiritual dedication, and I can imagine that as a source of comfort to their mourners it could be helpful.
- But there is also a danger associated with the term, which we must be careful to avoid. Already this week I have seen references along the lines of “Hashem wanted him in Shomayim so the world had to let him go”, as though this is all an act of God and their death is almost more to be celebrated than it is to be mourned. Clearly for the families this is a very real and pure expression of their own feelings about their lost child or relative, and as such it must be respected and cherished: but it is not the take-away message for the rest of us.
- While preserving the purity and dignity of the memory of those sweet souls who died, we need to be very clear: this was not an act of God, except in as much as everything that happens in the world is permitted to happen by God.
- The second of this week’s parashiyos makes it very clear in the Tochachah that God permits many things to take place in the world that are consequences of our own actions, and that are not to be construed as leaving us blameless on account of their being God’s will in the sense that everything that happens must be the will of the Master of the Universe. Bad consequences of bad actions must be taken to heart, not explained away as “God’s will”.
- This accident did not occur “because” God wanted these 45 pure souls to die before their time: it occurred “because” of a disgraceful and tragic failure on our part to take health and safety sufficiently seriously.
- Who is “our part” for these purposes? Well I don’t know, and nor does anybody else. And in seeking to determine it we can approach it in one of two ways.
- We can try to narrow it down, by seeking to point the finger of blame at particular individuals. In doing so we are very unlikely to do more than increase division, attribute blame unfairly to scapegoats, and lead to the general issue of health and safety being taken less seriously by those who consider themselves exculpated, rather than by being taken more seriously by us all.
- So in this week of the Tochachah I suggest that everyone who has any kind of connection with Israel or the Jewish community, or even who feels empathy with what happened simply by virtue of being a human being, might usefully consider ourselves all responsible, not in the sense of having been to blame for what happened, but as being obliged to take away from it the message that we need to redouble our efforts to look after each other, and show each other practical care and sensitivity by guarding each other’s safety as well as in other aspects.
- This was not an act of God: it was an act of human beings. The lives that were lost were lost senselessly and pointlessly and unnecessarily. These deaths do not add in themselves to kiddush Hashem in any sense, and although those who died should definitely be dignified by the attribution kedoshim where that brings any feeling of comfort to their mourners and reminds us of their own sweet and holy natures, those of us who are left behind should not forget that this was a desecration of God’s name and not a sanctification, and that it requires to be expiated by our re-doubling our efforts to sanctify and protect human life wherever possible.
The Sceptic Blog 