Inset: Getzy Markowitz.
Two headlines this week interested me in that I have been following their development since their posting. The first intrigues me in terms of history, the second triggers my sense of humanity. One sheds light onto the other which is shrouded in disaster and darkness.
The number of fatalities in Haiti's throttling earthquake is still unclear, but as it is expected to exceed one hundred thousand, already the figure confounds the comprehension of man.
Dying to Help – A Human Response to the Haitian Earthquake
Inset: Getzy Markowitz.
Two headlines this week interested me in that I have been following their development since their posting. The first intrigues me in terms of history, the second triggers my sense of humanity. One sheds light onto the other which is shrouded in disaster and darkness.
The number of fatalities in Haiti’s throttling earthquake is still unclear, but as it is expected to exceed one hundred thousand, already the figure confounds the comprehension of man.
As the catastrophe ravaged the necessitous Caribbean nation, Jews in the neighboring Dominican Republic felt the shuddering of the monstrous quake, as they studied Torah with their rabbi. Newswires reported that the study group closed their books and sought safety as the ground shook beneath them. As I read this, I wondered what the Good Book says about such devastation. What can it teach us about the kind of apocalypse that seems as though its Author closed the book on His creations?
At this moment, rescue workers are tunneling through the wreckage. It is a desperate search for life in a hell on earth.
A second headline proclaims that excavations southwest of Cairo have led Egyptian archaeologists to insist that the Great Pyramids were not built by Hebrew slaves, an opinion previously maintained by leading historians. Jewish academia too has probed the mystery of the Giza Necropolis. Ours has been a simple question: could the slaves heave and haul the huge stones, and then erect the monumental tombs?
When G-d instructed man to build him a home on earth in the form of the Tabernacle, the Jews turned to Moses, as the directive seemed impossible. Simply, “no man could erect it because of the weight of the beams.”
If they could not build a wooden home for G-d, how could they have built the wondrous tombs of Egypt’s demigods?
Whether or not my ancestors built the massive burial chambers in the desert is a question of little urgency, while today’s focus is on how to find and resurrect life in latter day cities that have been suddenly transformed into mass graves.
Regarding the Tabernacle, our sages teach that Moses told the Jews to “work with your hands,” giving the appearance that they were erecting the edifice, “but it will go up on its own.” In other words, G-d would never overburden His creations, nor visit upon them trials that they cannot overcome. If He says build, then we can form. If He demolishes, then we must create.
Our teachers and preachers encourage us with the enduring fact that G-d does not challenge us if we cannot handle the test. Nor does he burden, if he has not already vested within us the ability to overcome. History and misery questions the mystery of Theodicy. Here I dare not, for I am a man of faith, and because my faith teaches of G-d’s faith in the ability of man.
International assistance is hastily streaming into Haiti. From the U.S. to Israel, world governments are hurrying to aid the crippled island. Some are there searching for the living, while others are in their living rooms, contributing generously to their efforts. It is moving that when mankind is stricken, when foundations are toppled by acts of G-d, barriers are gloriously broken by acts of everyday people.
Indeed, we can and shall overcome. For me, G-d’s insistence on man’s perseverance is more than our ability to contend with calamity, but to defend humanity. It is not so much having the psychological strength to bear the burden of bricks, but rather what we build with them once they are handed to us.
Yael
Ok, but what are we doing to help?
GM re:Yael
Chabad Haiti Relief
http://www.chabadominican.c…
American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/
Zaka
http://www.zaka.org.il/inde…
And Tehilim
shmulik
umm ok, thanks for ur opinion but ur point is..??
Chaim R.
Good to know that you dismiss the issue of theodicy… It was never a question Judaism, rather, it emerged from Enlightenment thinkers in the 1700s, specifically Leibniz (thanks wikipedia).
I will say this: your article does not sound Jewish. We do not refer to the Torah as the “Good Book,” you sound like an evangelical. Stop mutilating your thesaurus and write something coherent in the future.
A Human Response
The human response should be to physically help, not to theorize and connect everything you heard of that week in an essay.
Chulent is a great food, writing a chulent not the same.
Priorities
The Liberows, Chabad Mumbai, Mendy Azoulay, the Roetters, and even more importantly many almonos and yesoimim in our own communities whom we barely know about are not getting millions in aid sent to them by the US and do gooder organizations.
Keep that in mind before worrying about a country that basically ran itself into the ground.
TO priorities
How about you keep that in mind before attacking another Yid!
This commuln is not intedned for the ch audiance particularly.
and by the way, the Author is heavily involved in raising funds for your “concerned” causes. What are you doing?
Hey Shmulik
remove the L and the I and what do you get?
What!
So Mr “priority” in other words the heck with them bc they, and ny they I assume you mean the poor illiterate population, ran themselves into the ground?
The Rishus of some poeple in the community.
Getzy, a beautiful essay as usual.
Re Chaim R
Tevye definitely refers to it as the good book, and Jews do too
haahahahaha
Go burn in your own jelousy
Exploitation of priorities
I am shocked and disturbed my the “Priorities” comment.
Did you seriously just exploit those people like that!?!?!?!?
TO prioroties
The comment made by “Prioroties” are as sick as those made by Pat Robetson. I wont even talk abt he or her bringing in all the horrific tragedies and judgeging Getzy.
Tell me you sicko, the Hatians had it coming to them you sick twisted man!
check your geneoligy bc I believe Jews are sons of Rachmonim… you are of Soinim