Today is Gimmel Tammuz, the twentieth anniversary of the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. I was emotionally numb since receiving the news of the three kidnapped and murdered boys last night, but that changed when I went to pray today. Chabad meditative prayer is intellectual, it’s all about soaring on the wings of lofty spiritual concepts. But as I focused and meditated and my thoughts took me to where they are supposed to go, the tears also came. I can’t explain it. All of a sudden the senseless loneliness and sorrow of the boys and their families hit me like a ton of bricks. The tears started and they haven’t stopped.
As if the news of the boys was not enough, a dear friend called me last night and told me that he lost his mother. The levaya is today, gimmel Tammuz. His family is not just another noble Jewish family. They are the rabonim and poskim of the largest congregation in London and hence in all of Europe. Meaning, they do not live for themselves, they are dedicated to all of the Jewish people.
Taken altogether, we begin to get the picture. There are days when the kedoshim, the holy ones of the Jewish people, are taken back to their source. Whether the Rebbe, whether the three boys, whether my friend’s mother, for some reason known only to Him, they are needed more upstairs than they are down here. They can do more for us from Above than they can down here in this physical world. No longer limited to a physical body, their souls can have an unlimited influence on the rest of the world. If I can, I’m going to the levaya of the boys. They are holy.
For more words of Torah on the weekly portion, go to http://jerusalemconnection.org/weekly If you would like to learn a method and technique of meditative prayer, go to www.jewishspiritualbooks.com, and if you just want to know what’s going on with Chabad in Jeruslaem, check out www.chabadjerusalem.org Plus here are a couple more sites for your educational benefit: www.rootsofprayer.blogspot.co.il and www.neirot.com A little something for everyone…
chabad jerusalem 
Leave a Reply