OU Executive Vice President, Emeritus Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb delivered the keynote address on Tuesday, December 25 at a program at Great Neck Synagogue, on the tragedy in Newtown, CT.\u00a0 Rabbi Weinreb spoke on the topic of \u201cAnswering Unanswerable Questions, Replacing Despair With Hope.\u201d He stated prior to his address, \u201cI will speak from a psycho-spiritual and Jewish perspective on how to respond to the immediate event, what to say to children, how to respond in the longer range, how to place the event in the broader context of personal suffering, contemporary American society, and Jewish history. \u00a0I will stress the heroism of the teachers, and mention issues of mental illness.”<\/p>\n
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RABBI WEINREB, IN KEYNOTE ADDRESS ON NEWTOWN TRAGEDY, DECLARES \u2018GOD STANDS FOR LIFE AND THIS ENTIRE ACT REEKS OF DEATH\u2019; GIVES ADVICE ON HOW TO DEAL WITH CHILDREN IN FACE OF TRAGEDY; CALLS FOR \u2018THOROUGH\u2019 GUN CONTROL<\/strong><\/p>\n By Stephen Steiner<\/em><\/p>\n Combining the sadness of Tisha B\u2019Av, the soul-searching of Yom Kippur, the remembrance of Rosh Hashanah, and the renewal of Rosh Chodesh, Orthodox Union Executive Vice President Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, speaking to the Great Neck, Long Island Jewish community, called the mass murder of children and adults in Newtown, CT \u201ca profanation of the name of God. \u00a0God stands for life and this entire act reeks of death.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking at the OU member Great Neck Synagogue on the night of December 25, before an audience of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews, with the Orthodox attendees including Chabad, Rabbi Weinreb delivered the keynote address of the program, \u201cA Great Neck Community Evening of Reflection: Responding to the Tragedy of Newtown.\u201d \u00a0The program included the personal reflections of Great Neck native Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel in Newtown; ministering to the one Jewish family involved in the tragedy, that of Noah Pozner, and joining with his fellow Newtown clergy as a comforter in times of great despair, Rabbi Praver has become a nationally known figure.<\/p>\n It was left to Rabbi Dr. Weinreb, however, to put the event in context of the times Americans live in as well as of Jewish history, providing the insights of a rabbi along with those of a clinical psychologist. His address ranged from thoughts on the media, to the need for gun control, to how to deal with children in face of tragedy, and even to the music of Gustav Mahler. \u00a0Rabbi Weinreb spoke for slightly more than a half hour, but provided the wisdom of the ages, going back at least to Rabbi Akiva. And yes, drawing on Jewish tradition, he provided hope. Rabbi Weinreb expressed pride at the actions of Rabbi Praver, explaining \u201cBy the way he carried himself and came across in the media, he made a Kiddush Hashem,\u201d a sanctification of God\u2019s name.<\/p>\n Noting the psychologically protective tendency of people to distance themselves from tragedy by saying \u201ctragedy happens to the other,\u201d Rabbi Weinreb declared that \u201cby coming together tonight we are sending a message. \u00a0It is not \u2018the other\u2019 \u2013 this didn\u2019t happen to someone over there, it happened to us. \u00a0This is us.\u201d The teachings of the sages emphasize this point, Rabbi Weinreb said. \u00a0Rabbi Akiva, \u201cwho knew tragedy,\u201d dying as one of the ten martyrs mourned on Yom Kippur, said, \u201c\u2018How precious is the human being, created in the image of God. \u00a0We are all connected in some way, connected in the image of God, in the commonality of mankind.\u2019 A tragedy like this, Rabbi Akiva would say, \u2018should make us aware that we are all tzelem Elokim,\u2019 in the image of God.\u201d<\/p>\n Noting the stages of grief that people experience, and that in the first stage \u201cthe proper response is silence\u201d \u2013 as Aaron was silent following the death of his two sons (Leviticus 10:3) — Rabbi Weinreb criticized the media for being too intrusive with the families in the early days after the shootings, when they should have been emphasizing \u201chow we are all joined face to face by unspeakable horror.\u201d<\/p>\n Rabbi Weinreb devoted a large portion of his presentation to how to deal with children in the face of tragedy, by emphasizing the Jewish concept of \u201cKiddush HaChaim,\u201d the sanctity of life. The distinguished clinical psychologist provided a list of ten practical suggestions on how to talk to children about an horrific event. \u00a0They include:<\/p>\n Rabbi Weinreb referred to Janosz Korczak, the doctor who ran an orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto for two hundred children and who preserved an environment in which the youngsters, all of whom died in Treblinka, could feel safe until they were taken away.<\/p>\n When saying that the tragedy won\u2019t happen again, Rabbi Weinreb declared, He continued with his suggestions:<\/p>\n Music can play a part in healing, Rabbi Weinreb said, referring to the Jewish-born composer Gustav Mahler\u2019s song cycle, Kindertotenlieder \u2013 songs on the death of children. \u00a0\u201cFirst there is silence, but at some point you return to the ability to compose songs,\u201d Rabbi Weinreb said. He noted that Mahler\u2019s five-song cycle was set to the poems of another individual who had lost his children; after Mahler lost his own four-year-old child several years later, he said that he could not have composed the songs.<\/p>\n Turning to hope and renewal, Rabbi Weinreb declared, \u201cOur mission as a Jewish people is to be a light to the nations.\u201d He quoted Rav Kook who referred to \u201cthe mystical secret sanctity of life,\u201d and who \u201cadvocated a life that was appreciated intrinsically for all it has to offer, and not because death is inevitable.\u201d \u00a0Rav Kook said, \u201cLife is the essence of spirituality, life is the essence of God.\u201d<\/p>\n Again quoting Rabbi Kook, Rabbi Weinreb urged, \u201cIt is possible to prepare the world for a full understanding of what a meaningful life means \u2013 a life of joy, of compassion, of accomplishment. But an individual person cannot do this alone. The nation of Israel can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Rabbi Weinreb called for fulfilling the Jewish mission of emphasizing life. \u201cThis is something we can do as a group, with Divine assistance, each of us in our own way to change the world. We can do it. We have to do it. \u00a0We have to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n And there was silence, soon broken by applause.<\/p>\n
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\n\u201cThe way to do that is not by arming other people. Gun control is an absolute necessity,\u201d he said, dismissing the notion that \u201cguns don\u2019t kill people, people kill people.\u201d The rabbi called for \u201crational, sensible, thorough gun control,\u201d which would lead to \u201ccreating an environment which is pure, creating a sense of mutual trust. \u00a0Mutual trust in our lifetime has been eroded. \u00a0We must create a new sense of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n