A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
A Tragedy That Pierces All Our Lives

Amid all the debates on both important and frivolous issues, I haven't seen anything in the Orthodox blogosphere about the devastating tragedy on Monday night in Teaneck, in which 4 children died in a fire, with their mother critically injured, and two surviving sisters recovering from (reportedly) relatively moderate injuries. In the Teaneck community, as many as 2000 people attended yesterday's funerals. Hopefully the silence of bloggers is not due to apathy but to the failure to write anything meaningful in the wake of such a disaster.

Today's Bergen Record has a column by Mike Kelly - who I trust is not a member of the observant Jewish community - entitled 'A Tragedy That Pierces All Our Lives'. Kelly wrote, in part:

In the end, this tragedy does not merely force us to examine fire codes, smoke detectors - or even the actions of firefighters who may have done all the right things but still could not prevent these deaths. What makes this tragedy so different, not just within Teaneck but far beyond, is that it forces us to examine its inherent unfairness...

So in our homes now, maybe we will change that old battery in that old smoke detector. Maybe we will plot our family's escape routes in case fire breaks out, too.

But if we ponder this tragedy long enough, we will likely peer into our souls and ask that terrible question that reveals our terrible vulnerability.

Why?
posted on 3/24/2005