Bleeding Hearts...

Good afternoon to all...

In the comments section of my last blog entry, someone asked if I intended to condemn the shooting in New Zealand, or if my compassion extended only as far as the Jewish community.

With respect, here is my answer.

The shooting in New Zealand happened very close to Shabbat. The result of that is that I spoke about it from the bimah without notes. If there is concern about my lack of words here in the blog, please check with my congregants who were there last Shabbat morning. Unlike Pittsburgh, when there was a week to prepare a sermon, this was very short notice. That there is nothing written does not mean there is nothing said.

Furthermore, I imagine that the prayer rugs in the mosques were damaged. With that concern in mind, Rav Jen and I ordered two prayer rugs to be sent to one of the mosques in New Zealand. At my urging, my congregation sent two more to the other mosque that was attacked. This was a three-day endeavour that involved late hours due to the time differences.

On Friday, I will be part of a group of people standing outside a mosque up Jane St near King City. Sadly, we have all come to learn about what is called a Ring of Peace. The Muslim community in Oslo formed one outside the main synagogue back in 2015 after a synagogue shooting in Copenhagen. Since then, the Jewish community did the same after the Quebec City shooting (and I took part). The Muslim community did the same for us after Pittsburgh. We do this to make the statement that the right to pray in peace is also a community obligation to make sure that we can in fact all do that. Please contact me at my office e-mail if you would like to join in.

The above two paragraphs are not in my blog simply because it feels like bragging.

So to the person who asked the question, no, my compassion is not limited. As well, and with great respect, we have also seen entirely too many times over the last couple of years in which newspapers have had to retract stories for failure to check all of the relevant facts. I am not perfect. No one is. Please ask first what I have done or failed to do before it becomes necessary to walk back comments.

Wishing everyone a Simchat Purim.

R/SCG