10 Jan A TORAH REACTION TO TRAGIC EVENTS

Recently, the
wonderful Jewish
community of Staten
Island was hit by two
terrible tragedies. First,
the passing of a very
young Mrs. Miriam
Winiarz, zlzy”a, who
left her wonderful
children orphaned from
both their father and their mother. Then,
secondly, less than a week later, another
young mother and wife Mrs. Rachel
Eisenberg, zlzy”a, passed away also
leaving behind young unmarried children
(besides her married children) and a
grieving husband. As Torah Jews, we are
always searching for the Torah response to
such cataclysmic events.
I want to share with my dear readers a
Gemara in Sanhedrin [104]. Here, the
Gemara relates that there was a woman
who tragically lost her husband. A short
time before, she had also lost her son. This
woman lived right next to the great Rabbi
Gamliel, the Nasi (Prince) of Israel. Rabbi
Gamliel and the widow shared a common
wall and thus Rabbi Gamliel would hear
her copious weeping as she wailed

incessantly over her double loss. The
Gemara relates that upon hearing her
crying, Rabbi Gamliel also cried until, like
Leah Imeinu before him, his eyelashes
came out from the excessive crying.
In Eichah Rabbah, the Medrash adds an
important caveat to the story. Rabbi
Gamliel attached to his crying also the
calamity of the destruction of the Temple.
I had thought that the intent of this Medrash
is that once Rabbi Gamliel was already
crying, he used his weeping productively
to also bemoan the loss of the Temple and
the pain of the Shechinah. There are some
people who don’t easily cry. So, if they are
motivated by a moving play or a poignant
novel to cry, they should utilize those cries
and extend them for the Temple.
But, the Aleinu Lishabei’ach says a better
reason for rabbi Gamliel’s crying over the
Temple. When he empathized over the
double loss of this woman, it triggered in
him that this could only happen because
we don’t have a Temple. If we had the
Temple, the ketores, the daily incense
brought on the Altar would have protected
us from such tragedies. The Mizbei’ach
HaChitzon, the Outer Altar, which makes
peace between us and our Father in Heaven

would have forestalled such calamities.
So too, as we reflect upon the double
tragedy experienced in Staten Island, a
proper reaction is to mourn over the
absence of the Beis HaMikdash whose
cloak of protection would have surely
safeguarded these two wonderful women.
We might add that as so many of our
brothers and sisters are suffering
economically, either because of the
tuition crisis or the parnassah crisis, we
mourn over the absence of the Shulchan
in the Beis HaMikdash from which
emanated a blessing for the financial
prosperity of Klal Yisroel.

This should spur us to have more kavana-
concentration and devotion when we say

Ki leeshuascha kivinu kol hayom-for your
salvation we hope every day, in our daily
shmone esray. When we say Racheim na
Hashenm Elokeinu al Yisroel amecha
v’alYerushalayim irecha-Have Mercy
Hashem our God on Yisroel your nation
and Yerushalayim your city, every time we
bentch. And when we say thrice daily in
Aleinu Al kain nekaveh lcha Hashem
Elokeinu liros mheira bsifers oozecha-I,
Therefore hope Hashem our God to see
speedily your splendid might revealed.

In the merit of our daily praying and
pining for the Beis Hamikdash, may
Hashem bless us with long life, good
health, and everything wonderful.