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PDF versionBrooklyn tragedy reminds us of importance of ritual, community
by Jamie L Manson on Jul. 18, 2011
Some of those living outside of the New York metro area may have read about last week’s shocking murder of Leiby Kletzky, an eight-year old boy from an Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn.
Kletzky disappeared while walking home from day camp. It was his first time walking alone and he took a wrong turn. He stopped to ask a man for directions. Cameras show the man bringing Kletzky into his car. It was the last time Kletzky was seen alive.
The details of his death are horrid and the grief suffered by his family is unthinkable. Even the most hard-nosed of local New York journalists struggled to recount the details of this grisly story. But because life and religious belief are so intertwined in Orthodox Judaism, much of Kletzky’s story was told through the rituals that his community began to practice soon after his remains were discovered.
Most people in the U.S. know little about Judaism, and even fewer understand the mysteries of Hasidism. Members of this sect of Orthodox Judaism are known not only for their strict fidelity to the teachings of Torah, but also for living in insular communities. Several small sections of Brooklyn are known as enclaves for Hasidic Jews: Crown Heights, Williamsburg, and Borough Park, where Kletzky lived.
When Kletzky first went missing, thousands, many of them not from the Hasidic community, joined search parties. And when the news of Kletzky’s tragic end broke, thousands gathered in the streets to mourn at his funeral, which, in keeping with Jewish law, took place on the evening of the day his remains were discovered. Many of the mourners never knew the boy, some were not members of the Orthodox community, and some weren’t even Jewish.
Even Hasidic Jews who are used to living in tight-knit communities were struck by how the boy’s death had drawn them closer.
One man from Crown Heights reflected: “In the Jewish faith we say everybody is brought down for a reason and to fulfill something, and little Leiby fulfilled his in many ways -- especially bringing everybody not just from the Jewish community but from all faiths close.”
One of aspects of Jewish practice that I’ve always admired is the ritualization of the grieving process. After Kletzky’s burial, his family began the practice of sitting Shiva. For Orthodox Jews, this means staying at home for seven days as a way to both honor the dead and to help the mourners deal with their loss. Often mourners will tear their clothes to symbolize the rending of their hearts, and they refrain from grooming or washing their clothes. They can only leave the house to go to the synagogue for Sabbath worship.
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During these seven days, friends and family will visit and bring food. They are not to ask how the mourner is doing until three days of the Shiva has passed. After the seventh day, mourners are told to “get up” and end the Shiva. They begin to gradually re-enter normal life and resume the ordinary rituals of washing and grooming.
Kletzky’s death has left all of us, his community and strangers alike, struggling to make meaning of this tragedy. It brings me comfort to know that his family has these rituals to guide them through their grief and that their faith had given them a community that would support them through their sorrow.
This ritual, of course, does not give answers to unanswerable questions asked by all those who mourn. It does not quicken or ease the process of finding healing. But it does give those suffering loss a chance to literally “sit with” their grief, and they guide the community in creating a supportive presence for the grief-stricken.
Shiva, it seems to me, is ritual at its best. It honors the depth and struggle of a person’s time of mourning and helps the community commemorate and make meaning of the mystery of death.
Kletzky’s funeral took place on Wednesday evening, two days before the Friday evening Sabbath. During the Sabbath, mourners must break with sitting Shiva by washing and putting on clean clothes. Sabbath is a day of rest and peace that allows believers to put aside the pain of the world for one day. It seems a nearly impossible task for a family that faces a lifetime of sorrow.
But the Jewish community, perhaps better than any religious group, shares centuries of memories of horror and unspeakable brutality. Their shared rituals commemorate their sorrowful past and look forward in hope to a peaceful future.
An Orthodox rabbi and his family live on the first floor of my apartment building. Every Friday evening I see him prepare for prayer while his wife cooks the Sabbath dinner and his small children set the table where their ritual meal will take place.
Watching them, I am reminded that these are the very rituals that Jesus and his Jewish followers participated in every week of their lives. I witness with my own eyes the roots of the Eucharistic meal, and I see its true purpose: to make us more present to one another so that we might bring the presence of God more fully into one another’s lives.
I observe their Sabbath rituals with admiration, but also with a twinge of sadness, knowing that in my own Catholic faith, rituals are increasingly becoming empty for newer generations.
At the same time, our individualistic culture eats away at what is best about communal living. I wonder whether Catholics who no longer find liturgy life-giving could find their hunger for community and ritual fed through small, shared meals like this.
Hasidism, like Catholicism, is a faith rich with teachings, practices, mysteries, and observances. Ultimately, it is community that will help Kletzky’s family and friends find comfort and make sense of an unspeakable tragedy.
Kletzky’s murder is a stark reminder that ritual and community are crucial to the spiritual and emotional health of human beings. It calls us all to see the limits of individualistic lives, and shows us that the love and peace of God comes primarily through the communion that we create with one another.
[Jamie L. Manson received her Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School where she studied Catholic theology and sexual ethics. Her columns for NCR earned her a first prize Catholic Press Association award for Best Column/Regular Commentary in 2010.]
To learn more about In Good Conscience, including clips from the film, visit www.ingoodconscience.com. Further information about Barbara Rick’s work can be found at www.outofthebluefilms.com.
| Editor's Note: We can send you an e-mail alert every time Jamie Manson's column, "Grace on the Margins", is posted to NCRonline.org. Go to this page and follow directions: E-mail alert sign-up. If you already receive e-mail alerts from us, click on the "update my profile" button to add "Grace on the Margins" to your list. |
Leiby Kletzky was murdered
Leiby Kletzky was murdered and dismembered by a Jewish neighbor whose family probably performed the same rituals every sabbath. Not a very good argument for community.
The person who killed that
The person who killed that little boy seems to be psychotic, from what I've read about his demeanor and what he has been quoted as saying.
I know nothing about his family and you seem to be guessing. What I wonder is: why?
The Catholic Church likes to think of itself as a community too. If you don't like Vat II think about all those Knights of Columbus and Alter Guild members - small groups in their own way - community - only without the depth. Do you think there are no Catholics who have not done some truly terrible and vicious things? Pull-ese.
Every community has good and
Every community has good and evil within. This comment is absurd, and skirts bigotry. It is unworthy of this commentariat.
--Andy Jo--
What an absolutely despicable
What an absolutely despicable comment, tolle12! Are these comments sections truly being monitored; do we have to be exposed to these trolls?
archangel dear Richard
archangel
dear Richard Tolle12
It isnt the nationality, nor the religion of one who does harm to others. It is the derangement of mind. Understand that most who suffer from say, schizophrenia are also functional. People suffering from severe mental illness often are able to dress, wash, shop, eat, find their ways to various places, drive cars, go to school. Their social and work relationships are often highly disturbed, but often other people who are mentally sound and of good will, say without realizing what is wrong, that persons suffering from this kind of sometimes homicidal and suicidal illness, are just strange and they maintain distance or try to support with say, inviting them to big community events, etc.
It is true as you perhaps infer and someone else here says too, that the general public, no matter what group, small or large, tends to not know the signs of severe disorders that leave the person relatively functional, and there is also a strong sense, at least in the USA, to not interfere in another family's business. That that belongs to the headsman of the clan for instance in many cases.
We have learned over our lifetimes, in many ways, that IF we dont report, if we dont intervene, that the innocents, the vulnerable may be harmed by a person who is deeply mentally ill. It is a tightrope we walk, between not wanting to intrude, and yet needing to protect the vulnerable, which sometimes includes the mentally ill person themselves.
with kind regards,
dr.e
One could argue that Adolf
One could argue that Adolf Hitler, born and raised a Catholic, a choir boy in an Austrian Church with an upright winged cross (later tilted to be a swastka) was representative of all Catholics too. One could impugn all Catholics for all time with one person too. If I were you I would check the 2 X 4 of wood in your own eyes. One pyschotic does not a people make.
So you agree with Hasidic
So you agree with Hasidic attitudes towards women? The rituals of Hasidic faith symbolize a worldview neither you nor I accept, so I wonder at the wisdom of using them as examples.
You don't have to agree with
You don't have to agree with every aspect of another's beliefs to see the good that is there. To ignore that good is wrong IMO.
These are still the chosen people and doing their best, it seems, to keep the covenant. Even Paul acknowledges that.
One does not have to agree
One does not have to agree with everything in a religion or community to admire aspects of it. Ms. Manson is reflecting upon ritual that is valued by a community and is valuable to its members. I share her opinion of the beauty of the Jewish (and in particular, Orthodox Jewish) tradition and ritual.
This is an absurd reduction of a wonderful post that captures the spirit of a community.
--Andy Jo--
I just that is like many
I just that is like many here, including the author, not agreeing with most of Catholic teaching but liking some aspects of it.
What attitude towards women
What attitude towards women would that be? Respecting women who dress modestly, act modestly, raise their families, etc.? I hope that has not gone out of style. And even it has, maybe it should be respected, since it is not forced on anyone like some OTHER societies have tried (ex. Iran, Saudi Arabia). Last time I checked, the overwhelming number of Chassidic women remain in their culture because it suits them. They can always vote with their feet and leave, but most do not. A note to the critic, there is no such thing as "Hasidic faith" - its called Judaism (an an accepted varient based on Chassidic philosophy following the same laws and beliefs as Ashkenazi Jewry in general).
As for wisdom of using them as examples, your statement presupposes you have delved into the customs. How many books did you actually read on the subject to inform your opinion, or was this idle commentary (aka "cheap shot")? Do you even know what rituals you are speaking about? Let me suggest some "light" reading (light in the Jewish sense since many Jews make life long learning a key pleasure in their lives - something very much worth emulating in other religions and cultures): Rite and Reason (author Shmuel Gelbard). The subtitle of the books is "1,050 Jewish Customs and their Sources". Did you read that? - 1,050!!! Its not even comprehensive (for Jews 1,050 rituals is merely a "good start"), so maybe it would give you insight.
Consider this a teaching moment.
A note about rituals: When you attach meaning, knowledge, history, mysticism and understanding to a ritual; when you teach it to those around you in your family, it becomes a preserver of tradition, heritage, history, unity, learning, solidarity and attachment to G-d. So impugning anyone's ritual without understanding it, without taking time to research it will lead to ingrained ignorance, characature which often leads to steriotypes and hatred. Its happened before among huge numbers of Christians. I believe the Church calls it "teachings of contempt". Pray on it.
Jamie mentions the importance
Jamie mentions the importance of ritual (meaningful ritual), and community.
One of the biggest challenges in the Catholic Church is to be able to offer a sense of community to us, Catholics; and embracing and loving community.
In my parish there are around 22 groups called "Small Christian Communities", or "Cell Groups". Each group is different. Some of them are for families, others for single people. Some are in English, Spanish or Portuguese. We read and reflect on the next Sunday readings. We discuss, talk about our own lives, difficulties, joys. We become family.
For all of us who belong to one of those groups, the sense of community is very real. Attending Mass has a different meaning. It is indeed, a celebration with the loved ones.
Archangel Dear Ella
Archangel
Dear Ella Maria
that sounds like what we've sometimes been told about earliest church, all the little groups of people, and then enjoined from place to place in the Greater undertaking. How responsive. I wish I lived where you do. That sounds so sanely loving a way of community
with kind regards,
dr.e
I'm not sure why the death of
I'm not sure why the death of Leiby has affected me far more than any other murder of a child. They are all heinous but for some reason I can't stop crying over the death of this particular little boy. Maybe it's because I have a son who is almost 15 and there are decisions parents have to struggle with everyday in regards to your child. You hope you did a good job and they are safe but it's not the case sometimes. I don't think it matters if you are Jewish or a Catholic or even a parent, you only need to be human to be touched by this tragedy.
All I can think about is how scared he must have been when he realized he was lost. How big that community must have been to a lost child. I think of his mother who after a while must have been panicking when she realized he wasn't where he should have been. What is a mother to do? Leave and not be there if he does show up and now he's scared? Leave and get help so it's not too late to find him before it gets dark? To see him on the surveillance cameras breaks my heart, wishing I could scream at him to not go with that man, knowing if he would have talked to 999 other people, he would have been okay and they would have made sure he got home safe.
How someone could harm a child like that is beyond my comprehension. I hope Leiby's family finds comfort in their faith and in each other; my thoughts and prayers are with them. I hope they know how many people are praying for them around the world. Leiby’s father mentioned how lucky he was to have his son for 9 years; now God is lucky to have that special angel with him.
Thank you for a wonderful
Thank you for a wonderful article, that explained the rituals of our community using such a compassionate and positive lens. In reading articles and listening to the news about this tragedy, there was so much focus on the otherness and insularity of my community. Most of the focus or commentary included some subtle and other blatant criticism and suggestions that our way of life may have contributed to the tragedy. In other cases, media outlets used this focus on the Hasidic community to ferret out and air what they perceive to be flaws in our community and religion.
Your article is refreshing, educational and appreciated.
"Kletzky’s murder is a stark
"Kletzky’s murder is a stark reminder that ritual and community are crucial to the spiritual and emotional health of human beings." So sad an event, so vivid an example. Manson writes so truly and beautifully: there is no "ritual" without community and community needs ritual to exprience itself; to sensually experience and be fully engaged in that experience so that, as Wordsworth so keenly noted in his definition of poetry, it can also be recollected in tranquility. That is the essence of Christ's promise that He would be with us when gathered in His name.
True "ritual" and "liturgy" is not imposed as an abject lesson to be taught, but as gleaned in and from the experience emerging from being together in the instinct of community, however little or greatly understood.
One does not experience community by "denying oneself" as an integral element, or by convincing oneslf that attendance at a grandiose spectacular is anything but spectating. For all of its infantile weaknesses, this is that the post Vatican II was seeking to find. Returning to the Roman Missal is not "liturgy", not "ritual" in the human sense (of which Christ's incarnation was an affirmation of approval), it is a repudiation of incarnation in favour of institutional clericalism.
This event is just so sad for
This event is just so sad for all, including the perpetrator............and truly beyond words.
why do we refuse to grieve,
why do we refuse to grieve, but let that grief fester and infect us?
why do we refuse to enable one another grieve?
how does this tear our community?
how does this tear our heart, while Jesus commands us to comfort the mourning?
I appreciate what Jamie
I appreciate what Jamie Manson, is saying here but I do think she misses the mark. As others have stated above, the killer was a Rabbi himself and surely the child related to him as one of his community. All too often we reject those that are different and accept those that are of our own "tribe" without question. This story is really a story of mental illness and the history of many religious communities' lack of understanding of it and lack of willingness to learn about it. It seems inconceivable to me how a Rabbi with contact with others in his community could exist with such deep mental illness and yet no one saw the need to address it.
Where in the world did you
Where in the world did you read that the killer was a Rabbi? Maybe I'm wrong but I can't find it anywhere in this article. He was a stock clerk in a hardware store. Perhaps you misread something.
Maybe you are alluding to the status that priests used to be held in as trusted members of the Catholic Church.
It's good Jamie reminded us
It's good Jamie reminded us of the healing and transformative power of ritual. Unfortunately, one of the gifts of the Enlightenment was to set us free of religion and ritual. In ancient times grief rituals extended even to war. The Roman soldier participated in a healing ritual after a day of slaughter. In our informed culture we watch our troops return broken, disintegrated and enraged.
The killer is no Rabbi nor is
The killer is no Rabbi nor is he actively religious. I followed this story closely - I have a child this age. All of the comments dealing with the identification of the killer, miss the point of this article.
I'm a Hasidic Rabbi from
I'm a Hasidic Rabbi from Crown Heights Brooklyn.
I had the sad honor of partaking in the Funeral for Leiby of blessed memory.
I stumbled across this site accidentally, and as a Jew and a Rabbi, the writer was quite in tune with the shiva practice of mourning and it's intent, overall a great article.
However 2 comments were way off the mark.
1) The killer is not a rabbi, he was never ordained or practicing, he is not religious in any sense, he is a sick killer and that is it. A skullcap on his head just further portrays how sick he is. It is tantamount to James Bundy having a cross around his neck and someone saying "I can't believe a priest could do that". That couldn't be more of a mistake to say that.
2)As far as how Hasidic men treat their wives and what type of opportunities they are afforded. I was raised in a Hasidic home, my father is A rabbi in Cleveland, I am an ordained Rabbi in Brooklyn and I have 2 other brothers who are Rabbis.
I could go on and on how beautiful and wonderful our homes are, and how satisfied our women are. it would take up too much space. I can shorten it by saying a few points. My wife is educated with a Masters degree in special education, her mother and sister are both practicing nurses. The hasidic women sittinng at present in the office with me here, are very respected, one is currently the layout manager for a large jewish newspaper, the other is a finace co-ordinator for a senior center. My wife recieves flowers from me every Friday evening, and she seems quite happy with me as a husband and the respect I give her. I couldn't even begin to tell you how central and respected our women are for what the accomplish. Yes, many stay at home raising families, that is their choice, and I can tell you my wife quit her job on her own initiative to stay at home with our daughter, and she couldn't be happier. Our divorce rate is somewhere in the range of a percent or two. That is not because they are forced to stay in a harmful marriage g-d forbid, anyone I know if their wives wanted to pick up and leave noone could top them, and they would actually be assisted by their local Rabbinical Authority.
All the best,
Sholom
I hope Rabbi Mendelson read
I hope Rabbi Mendelson read the retorts of others here to those complaining about the claim that the killer was a rabbi and that the Hasidic women were not respected.
Many of us stand with you.
may I grieve, as you for one
may I grieve, as you for one leave me room?
I find, in the metaphor of ritual dismemberment, and in your reference to divorce, countless thousands of children ritually dismembered every day across our nation in our ironically named family courts, fathers torn from sons and daughters, without recourse, upon the bloody ritual altar of the judge's table.
No comparison I am certain with the physical tragedy here, merely a suggestion for extension of this tragedy into our ritual spiritual and psychological horrors enacted daily, hourly each weekday across our nation, raising yet another dismembered generation, lost, without family, without wholeness, the walking wounded never to be healed, the easier to ply . . .
just grieving, makes no sense, I am certain, and no application certainly to this truly tragic and confusing case, for whom we give all our prayers, for whatever it's worth.
Archangel Dear Rebbe Sholom
Archangel
Dear Rebbe Sholom Mendelson
Thank you for your teaching us. It is appreciated.
kindest regards,
dr.e
clarisssa pinkola estés,
El Rio debajo del Rio, The River Beneath the River columns archived at NCRonline
Newspaper reports in the days
Newspaper reports in the days following the tragedy contained articles that stated that many in the community hoped the killer was black or did it out of anti-semitism and were shocked it was one of their own (racism) as well as an article that said the local community security/vigilante force checked on all the known child sex abusers in the community in their search. They have a list of known of suspected perverts but are not allowed to go to the police with any of the names without the permission of the rabbi. The paper was fine with this. Imagine if it was a Catholic list!
You mean like the list some
You mean like the list some Christians (certainly not all or even most) keep everytime there is an economic crime or bank failure looking for Jewish names? Or the list some Christians keep and check everytime Israel responds to another illegal, but acceptable, rocket attack on civilian buses or homes to calculate if it was "proportionate" enough? Maybe its time to check the stereotypes at the door.
And God was doing what?? His
And God was doing what?? His all powerful attribute stopped what? No tree to hit the madman before the deed. No loving protection of an 8 year old little boy. Why do we continue to say that God is all powerful if He doesn't use His power to protect His children? Why am I called to love as God loves when I should be strung up for allowing my child to be brutalized?? Don't tell me free will, an evil deed intended is still sinful even if (God) prevents it. The bullet that failed to kill Pope John Paul is supposedly a case in point. Are we all collectively crazy?
Ms. Manson, I have very much
Ms. Manson, I have very much enjoyed this post. I have often reflected upon how we Christians can re-learn from other faiths the importance of ritual for the milestones of life, and the celebration of our existence.
This brought forth the beauty I have seen in the Jewish faith of my neighbors.
--Andy Jo--
I agree with Jamie's comment
I agree with Jamie's comment that our society has generally lost its connection with traditional rituals. I do believe, however, that we can reconnect with this great form of wisdom and bring greater healing to our lives, if given the right tools and direction. That's why I wrote a book entitled, Creating Rituals: A New Way for Everyday Healing. It's based on true stories of people who found the grace of transformation through ritual expression. Hopefully, we can all learn from this tragedy how to come together for healing and transformation.
What caught my interest is
What caught my interest is the phrase "creating rituals". I can well imagine that traditions, even sitting Shiva could not be a meaningful ritual for many people, and that creating their own ritual would be more helpful and meaningful to them. If the tradition is defined in its broadest sense, "being allowed to grieve for an extended period of time after the death of a loved one" that is one thing. How that grieving is specifically to be carried out is quite another. How and what we do as a community to support the mourners is also as varied as the needs of the mourners. Traditions that are rigid and no longer meaningful are no longer helpful as a source of healing for many people. Traditions that are forced on people who are not able to carry them out for whatever reason are also not helpful. I've seen over the years that many people no longer have calling hours, or have shortened them as part of the funeral ritual. Tradition and ritual are very important but how they are expressed so that they are comforting and healing in their effect is also important.
Lore H's note appears
Lore H's note appears critical of Jews at a time of mourning, liking it to kicking a person when they are down. That seems odd, uncaring and hardly "loving". But of course, this comes from ignorance as much as malice. So lets treat this as a teaching moment.
First, you can imagine that sitting Shiva is not meaningful. But millions find it so. So, balance one person's imagination against the experience of millions. One does not perform a "ritual" in a vacuum, one studies the ritual and the teachings of the Sages on the meaning, purpose and method of the ritual. Thus, the ritual is anything but empty. In every house of Shiva I have been to, a book that explains the above is usually present - hardly a ritual done in ignorance or a vacuum. Maybe if Lore H. had read one of the books, the author might have a learned basis for a more productive comment.
Second, "traditions that are forced" seems oddly out of place. In 60 + years I have never seen that "force". Who are the "enforcers"? Why is there an assumption that "force" is employed? Jews have no hierarchical "church" power, there is no threat of excommunication, not banishment ploys. Maybe the author projects their own experiences? Why is "tradition" so threatening to Lore H.?
Third, "traditions that are rigid and no longer meaningful" again seems like an odd statement. How can a tradition that has books supporting it with all the explanations be "no longer meaningful", if the meanings are well documented? How can they be considered rigid, unless one presumes all traditions are rigid? Rigidity goes along with the above misinformed statement of "being forced". Why is there a presumption that Jews act like robots? The author might consider that Jews voluntarily follow tradition because a) its binding, b) it serves a useful human purpose, c) it supports group identity, d) it is based on a life long pattern of study and learning and e)it brings us closer to G-d and f) it is NOT forced or enforced by any power structure (which does not even exist). Its called being faithful!
Education in the vast body of Jewish life, law, culture, people, tradition would provide Lore H. with a perspective that is: expansive, varied by multiple Jewish customs, over thousands of years, enriching in how millions have weathered the world's (some might even say Christian-imposed) tragedies and provide a sensitivity that seems to be lacking here.
Lore H. seems to exhibit or embody the historic Christian presumption that Jewish law and lore is limited, unsophisticated, superseded, and irrelevant. Go listen to the joyous prayers of Holocaust survivors who praise G-d as they mourn their lost families each Tisha b'Av for inspiration. You will see heroism, love of G-d, love of life at work. But most importantly, you will see a person whose mourning ritual kept intact, functioning and ultimately reconciled with G-d's love. Something to think about.
In America we have a culture
In America we have a culture of rampant individualism---that regards the individual as the be-all and end-all. The self-made individual remains a strong mythic and iconic figure even in contemporary American culture (note the movies from past and present that emphasize this from "Rambo" to "Cowboys and Aliens"). The self-made person is able to do whatever he/she wants if he/she just works hard enough.
However our spiritual/religious culture balances this view with understanding from Scripture and tradition that tells us that none of us is self-made. We are obviously dependent on God but also on many other human beings---family, friends, teachers, various associations, the political community----and our church communities. From Vatican Council II, documents like "Gaudium et spes" and our Catholic tradition point out that social relationships and social structures are necessary for the development of the individual person, as seen in the first community---the family.
It is the family that gives us love, nuture, and hope; they educate us, sustain us, and accept us for who we are and not for what we do. When a family suffers a tragic loss like the family of Letby Kletzky has, THEY need the care of a community of other families who respond with the strong and comforting support that is found in a ritualized tradition. Jamie's article pointed out the great value of the Jewish Hasidic traditions that are part of the life experience of every Hasidic Jew. This strong support came to surround the Kletzky family in their grief.
As Catholics, it is crucial for us to be aware of our own ritualized tradition that are present. We need to understand the great value of the support of the entire Catholic community that is within our parish churches. We see this in the prayers that are offered for the deceased by the entire parish community. We see this in the Vigil services, the Translation Prayers (held at the funeral home), the Funeral litergy and the Grave-side prayers that are offered by the priest and parish ministers---for the deceased AND for the comfort of the family---these are the ritualized prayers of the Catholic community.
It is also equally important to realize the great work of smaller groups within the parish church (or smaller groups that minister within regional Catholic parishes). Sometimes these groups are neighborhood families that visit the family with food and comfort. Other times, this is a trained Bereavement Ministry Group that can offer comfort and guidance to a grieving family---sometimes for some weeks---and at other times for a longer period. Here we see our neighbors celebrating the dignity of the deceased person and also recognizing both the dignity of the grieving family and humans' social nature.
As Jamie wisely pointed out---we Catholics have inherited a rich tradition of ritual and practices from the Jewish community. We need to be not only more aware of it---but also to lend our hands and support to our parishes/communities that need us to comfort others submerged in grief over the loss of family members or friends.
One of the defense attorneys
One of the defense attorneys quit. It could have been because of the crime itself, or perhaps political and economic pressure?
May I please urge everyone to
May I please urge everyone to take and read the blessed collection of the Essential Writings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, selected and introduced by his daughter, Susannah, and published by our great and holy Roman Catholic publishing house, Orbis Books, based in Maryknoll, NY, as part of its Modern Spiritual Masters Series.
My copy came yesterday, and I could not be more grateful in this very needful hour.
Two sources of information
Two sources of information about community:
www.mhr.org
"How Awesome Is This Place" by E. Donald Osuna.
I would like to thank the
I would like to thank the vast majority of commentors on this article who were supportive of the Jewish community in this tragedy and rejected those who clearly needed to once again make the unfortunately "traditional" Christian anti-semitic references and innuendos. It is these people who continue to impugn the Jewish people, beliefs and lifestyle that will always set back any form of interfaith dialogue and reconciliation.
The Jewish commuity is sensitive to such unjustified criticism and will see such remarks as a continuation of Christian anti-Jewish hostility that current Church teaching has yet to eradicate. We know such views have not died out and have our radar up at all times to note it and be wary of it. But we also recognize righteous gentiles when they speak out. Only the Jewish people could have founded the likes of Yad V'Shem which to this day seeks out righteous gentiles to honor them for what they did in the Holocaust. Maybe one day, Christians will replicate such an institution to recognize righteous Jews (who remain Jews) who do good work as well. Maybe then more Christians will internalize the inherent good in the "religious other".
Shalom
I am also a Jew (and former
I am also a Jew (and former Roman Catholic) who sometimes comments on NCR articles. Judaism is all about community, connectedness and continuity. And I want to repeat something we say about Shabbat: As much as Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath as kept the Jews. This means that our keeping the Sabbath for nearly 5,000 yrs, has kept the Jeiwsh people alive and together as a community. We live and die in community.
There really is no answer to
There really is no answer to this thing since the villain was actually a member of the community itself. So community as valuable as it is, is not the "answer." There is no answer in the sense that the psychotics will always be with us. Although back in my young day they could lock up loonies in bins. Nowadays, they can roam free & this is what happens in consequence. Think about it!
However, this sad story reminds me of something of my youth besides the looney issue. We were always told in school, "Never, ever, get into the car of a stranger, no matter what." We got the same message from our parents. I'm sure this boy in a tight knit community with religious overtones like mine got the same message as I did in my youth. It's just so sad that he forgot this advice when the time came.
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