Just over a year ago, on Nov. 26, 2008, the world reacted with horror upon hearing the news of the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, which would, when the shooting was over, leave at least 170 people dead.
The Jewish world shared in that horror, coupled with their unique grief, as six of the victims were Jewish. The terrorists intentionally targeted Mumbais Jewish address, the Chabad House. The head of the house, a youthful couple, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, were much beloved, known in Mumbai for their friendliness and hospitality.
One year is not enough to heal such grief or to still such horror, but time does heal. Like the new growth that slowly surfaces amidst the ashes of a terrible forest fire, life goes on, defiant of hate and violence and confident of the future.
We can rejoice that the Holtzbergs young son, Moshe whose life was courageously saved by a nanny, Sandra Samuel lives on. That his young life was spared is itself a source of hope for a better future.
We can derive pleasure, and perhaps even a smile, when we read a press report that some 500 Lubavitcher children have been named Rivky or Gavi to honor the memory of two of those who fell.
This Sunday, Nov. 29, the international Chabad community will collectively honor and mourn the Holtzbergs.
Others remember other victims. Two of them, Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum and Ben Tzion Kruman, were on their way to the Mumbai airport, but made what they thought would be a quick stop at the Chabad house to recite the afternoon and evening prayers (mincha and maariv). Teitelbaum was the son-in-law of the Toledos Avraham Yitzhak chasidic rebbe. Both he and Kruman were kashrut experts. Teitelbaums father commented after his immeasurable loss that perhaps Jews should be more careful about what they put into their mouths and what they let leave their mouths how they speak about people.
Responses such as this and the memorial for the Holtzbergs say a lot about survival in response to those who seek to kill and destroy, about the continuity of life in the face of death, about belief in goodness even after it has been attacked by evil.
