As Rabbi Boteach mentions in his article, we can probably conclude that this man, like Jared Loughner, who killed several people in Arizona, suffers from some severe mental illness.\u00a0 Perhaps he hallucinated or heard voices.\u00a0 He is currently on suicide watch in jail.\u00a0 There is no rational reason for one human being to brutalize another in this way.\u00a0 Rabbi Boteach tries to understand, tries to find some reason that this brutal crime was allowed to happen, and comes up dissatisfied.\u00a0 He concludes by stating that \u201c\u2026G-d\u2026has a lot of explaining to do\u201d.<\/p>\n
I agree that this killing was senseless and that the shocking nature of it will stop anyone with a shred of humanity in his tracks.\u00a0 We cannot fathom the mind of the evil or the insane.\u00a0 We simply have to put it down to Allah\u2019s Divine Decree, or Qadr<\/i> as it is called in Arabic.\u00a0 This heinous crime may have gotten Rabbi Boteach\u2019s attention, but it certainly not an uncommon thing for a child to die in a horrendous fashion.\u00a0 Most often the deaths simply happen out of reach of the media.\u00a0 Children die every day, unremarked by CNN or Fox News.<\/p>\n
A few days ago, a Muslim woman in New Jersey died in childbirth; her twins died as well.\u00a0 She left behind a grieving husband and three other children.\u00a0 In April, a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan killed twenty-five, including women and children.\u00a0 No doubt their bodies were abused by the deadly shell just as poor Leiby\u2019s was by his killer.\u00a0 In Somalia in April, 300 children were left for dead on the side of the road while their families journeyed to a refugee camp.\u00a0 In Thailand, young girls sold into sex slavery die every day of diseases and addiction.\u00a0 In the Chicago in the U.S., there were 68 murder victims between the ages of 13 and 18 last year.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
See, there is murder and mayhem aplenty in our world.\u00a0 It only comes to our attention when it happens within our family or social circle.\u00a0 Otherwise, we simply carry on with our lives, oblivious to the deaths happening every second.\u00a0 Then, when it comes crashing into our lives, we wonder \u201cHow can a Just God allow this to happen?\u201d.<\/p>\n
You know, He just does.\u00a0 Allah created and sustains the universe and when He created it and then created Aadam, peace be upon him, He set in motion the biggest test in the universe. He gave humans free will and allowed us to use that free will to become something greater than the angels, or lower than the most savage beasts of the earth.\u00a0 He gave us the tools we needed to flourish \u2013 a world of beautiful vistas chock-full with food and water.\u00a0 He gave us guidance in the form of prophets, messengers, and Books.\u00a0 Over the centuries some men have risen to the challenge of being human.\u00a0 Others have chosen to crawl in the mud and prey on the helpless.\u00a0 It is part and parcel of our world.\u00a0 Some of us get flowers and sunshine; others get something else.<\/p>\n
It can be a challenge to our faith in God when something like this happens, but we have to hold fast to one truth:\u00a0 death is death, and no matter the manner of our death, once we are dead, we are dead, and we don\u2019t really care if our body is lying peacefully in a bed surrounded by loved ones or chopped up in bits and served with a nice bottle of Chianti in some Hannibal Lecter nightmare.\u00a0 The manner of our death is not important; how we lived our lives is.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather be a chopped up body with a soul that is destined for Jannah than a well-preserved corpse whose recently departed soul is heading for the Fire.\u00a0 The horror of a violent death is not ours, anyway.\u00a0 It is reserved for those who survive us, who have to deal with the aftermath of mayhem, who have to miss the departed loved one and come to grips with their manner of death.\u00a0 Leiby\u2019s life is over; he will never be in pain again.\u00a0 And as a child, he will not be held to account on the Day of Judgment.\u00a0 What parent can wish more for his child than that he gets a free pass into Paradise?\u00a0 Our test, the test of the survivors, is to make sure we live Godly lives so we can be in Jannah with our departed loved ones.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Rabbi Boteach, God doesn\u2019t have any explaining to do.\u00a0 He already told us that this world is a test and that we will be tried.\u00a0 Our tests are not noble or pretty; we don\u2019t get to wrestle with angels or write an essay.\u00a0 Our tests are earth-shaking and soul-shattering: cancer, a tsunami, a car crash, the death of a child.\u00a0 These tests, these horrible, ugly, real world tests are where we have to rely on the true Justice of God and know that He will set things aright in the end.\u00a0 Everything will be made right on Judgment Day, and those who are destined for Jannah will have every hurt healed, every sad memory expunged, every horror undone.\u00a0 We just have to have the faith to stay strong until then.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
My heart goes out to the family of Leiby Kletzky and I pray that they and the entire Jewish community will be comforted in the knowledge that no one can ever hurt him again.\u00a0 May Allah give us the patience to bear with dignity and grace the tests He places in our lives, Ameen.<\/p><\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rabbi Schmuley Boteach wrote an article that appeared on Huffingtonpost.com decrying the senseless brutal murder of a young boy on his way home from day camp.\u00a0 This boy lived in the supposedly safe and insular Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park in New York.\u00a0 This boy, Leiby Kletzky, had only eight short blocks to navigate.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n