The Jewish response to tragedy is loud: it is not silent. It is conversational, reflective and thought provoking. Sefer Iyov discusses varying degrees of divine intervention and reasons for suffering. Tragedy is not meant to be digested in silence, whether it’s a personal tragedy – such as a death of a relative, where we are mandated to sit shiva amidst the comfort of our friends and families – or a national tragedy, where reflection and a struggle to find answers are part of the process of healing.
Thus, as a response to the December 14th, 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the students of Yeshiva University organized a memoriam in reaction to the tragedies that occurred. The second deadliest school shooting in United States history left twenty children, between the ages of six and seven, and six adults dead.
The event, run by TEIQU (Torah Exploration of Ideas, Questions and Understanding) included remarks from varying YU staff members including a poem written and read by Dr. Ruth Bevan, a recitation of Tehilim and Kel Maaleh Rachamim, and candles lit for all the victims, accompanied by a somber Esa Enai fromthe Y-Studs.
President Richard Joel was the first to speak about what he dubbed “the unspeakable.” He began by referencing on the holiday of Chanukah as the perfect paradigm for adding light in times of darkness. He called upon the students of YU to unearth the “mandate to matter in this fractured world,” explaining that “there is a mandate to kindle light in darkness” and that this mandate is the both the message of Chanukah and the essence of the Jewish response to tragedy. Rather than feeling crushed and immobilized by unspeakable tragedies, the Jewish community searches for the mandate to matter and so, as President Joel emphasized, “As the Yeshiva University community we rise to the occasion in the only way we can: by living up to our mandate”.
Rabbi Yonah Reiss, Dean of RIETS, echoed the sentiments of President Joel by calling upon the students of YU “to make the world a better place”. Rav Reiss explained that YU students should respond to the tragedy by making an effort “to increase our acts of Gemilat Chasssadim, to demonstrate kindness towards each other, and to live with compassion”. Rav Reiss also touched upon the political effects of the shooting in in particular, he discussed a government awareness of the need for stricter gun control laws. “On a communal level, I believe we should strongly consider being constructive participants in the political process to prevent these types of tragedies” said Rav Reiss. The demand for stricter gun control was also a view expressed by Dr. Gabriel Cwilich, Director of the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program, who called upon politicians to begin to act in the wake of the deadliest era of mass gun violence America has ever seen. Rabbi Kenneth Brander, led the recitation of Tehillim before adding that “as Torah Jews, it is our moral responsibility to care for all,” Jews and non-Jews alike.
The commemoration was meant not only as a means of remembering and honoring those that were killed but as a way for the YU community and the greater Jewish community at large to grope for answers in a world tainted by the blood of innocent children. As this the case during Chanukah, the Jewish community was compelled to respond to this tragedy by making a commitment to strive to bring more light to a world that had turned too dark.