A Murder in Baltimore, a Murder in Rechovot

A Murder in Baltimore, a Murder in Rechovot

Crystal and Debbie have been cleaning my father’s home every week for the past 25 years. When the cleaning company they worked for announced it was closing around 5 years ago, Debbie (she later told me) said to Crystal, “Listen, we have so many old people depending on us to clean their homes. Like Mr. and Mrs. Freedman! We can’t just stop coming!” So after their company closed down Debbie knocked on my parents’ door and said their company was closing, but they wanted to continue coming to clean. Would that be OK?
They are, I think, among the sweetest human beings on the face of the earth.
Anyway, this morning, Debbie came to clean, but Crystal wasn’t with her.
“Hey Debbie, where’s your friend?” I asked.
Debbie turned to me, and said in a hushed voice, “Well, I didn’t want to tell your father. He’s getting older, and I didn’t want him to get all upset. But Crystal’s son was killed 3 weeks ago. And she hasn’t left her house ever since.”
Then Debbie told me that one day Crystal’s 17-year-old son had gone out to eat with his father at McDonalds, and had been killed by a stray bullet. The father was unharmed, but just like that, their only son was gone.
I was still reeling from this horrible news when, a few hours later, I heard about another murder. In Israel today a Gazan missile fell on an apartment building in Rechovot, injuring several people, and killing one woman.
And I couldn’t help but think of the stark contrast between these tragedies.
This year on Yom HaZikaron I was wondering about why 25 years ago the Israeli government expanded Yom HaZikaron, to honor Israel’s fallen soldiers as well as Israeli victims of terror.
What does an IDF hero like Colonel Dror Weinberg, killed in battle with a terrorist cell in Hebron, have in common with 6-year-old Yaakov and 8-year-old Asher Paley murdered in a ramming attack at a bus stop?
What they have in common, I realized, is that in Israel the line between soldier and civilian isn’t only blurry, it’s often nonexistent. As a Jew living in Israel, your very address is a provocation. A call to battle. Whether you are wearing an IDF uniform like Dror Weinberg HY”D, or your shabbos best with tsaddikim cards in your breast pocket like Yaakov and Ushi HY”D.
Or in your apartment in Rechovot, like today’s victim, HY”D.
The difference between the horrible murder of Crystal’s son and the murder of the woman killed today is the difference between senseless gun violence and a Jew killed because she is a Jew living in Israel. The difference between a senseless tragedy and a tragedy that is a kiddush Hashem.
May Hashem comfort Crystal, who deserves only revealed good as pure as her pure heart, as well as the family of today’s victim. May she be the last Jew killed for being a Jew, anywhere. Hashem, please. Enough.

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