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When you break the hearts of babies
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The baby Moses at his parents' memorial (AP)
When terrorists seized the Chabad House in Mumbai, nanny Sandra Samuel locked herself in a laundry room, as she tried to comprehend the situation and find a way to save herself and others. Sandra had been a longtime worker at the community house, where people routinely gathered to pray, share meals, and perform good works in the city. She specifically looked after Moshe (‘Moses’)—the 2-year-old curly-haired son of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 28. In the midst of gunfire and pure terror, Sandra would save the little boy, even as his parents were murdered while he watched.
According to Associated Press reports filed from Jerusalem, the nanny heard Moshe's mother screaming "Sandra, help!" Then the howling stopped, and it was still. The child had been somehow spared bullets and he sat with his pants drenched in his parents’ blood.
This planet has a profoundly skewed category in the library of its theologies.
We are all still waiting to hear from a thoughtful Islamic teacher on the rationale for this world jihad against babies, young parents, innocent tourists, airline passengers, embassy workers, US soldiers, Christians, Jews, Hindus, and any Muslims who happen to be in the way.
The AP: Sandra cracked open the door of her hiding place and saw a deserted staircase. She ran up one flight and found the rabbi and his wife, covered in blood and shot to death. She snatched up the crying boy, bolted down the stairs and ran out of the building.
My own family in Israel watched the televised memorial service for the young rabbi and his wife, which took place in a Mumbai synagogue. The AP: The cries of little Moshe wounded hearts…”Mommy, mommy, mommy!” he wailed, clutching a toy basketball while squirming in the arms of mourners at the synagogue.
Afterwards, an Israeli air force jet flew Moshe, Sandra Samuel, the baby’s maternal grandparents, and a few others to Tel Aviv to prepare for the burials of the young couple and the other four Israeli victims of the wanton siege in Mumbai. The toddler had never been to Israel, was now orphaned and enshrined in history, and just wanted his Mommy.
There will be serious discussions about the ultimate custody of Moshe Holtzberg. But people of faith are already forming a family circle around this little Moses and he will grow old, please God, in safety and warmth—even as he will undoubtedly retain the memories of his parents’ screams and the stains of their blood.
We are all custodians of Moses and every child in this world orphaned by the current insanity. We will defeat their brutality with the power of our love. But even the biblical Moses (who also survived terror as a baby) ultimately turned the mantle over to Joshua, the general.
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