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2003

Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm's Speech at YU Memorial for Space Shuttle Columbia Astronauts (2003)

Torah & Technology Eulogies & Memorials Zionism
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Speech

Eulogy for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1995)

In Halakha-difference between אנינות ואבילות-disbelief/onset of pain... A this very hour/Jerus/being led to קבורה; & we-still in state of shock, & just beginning to feel full impact of grief. So – is too early to take full measure of man, just enough for expression of initial grief and the bare beginnings of assessment of R. for us/historyBegin with an interpretation of this past Shabbat's Sidra: לך לך מארצךוממולדתך ומבית אביך...אבות פ״ה-עשרה נסיונות...ורמב״ם-א׳ מהן "לך לך". אבל קשה-רש"׳ --"לטובתך ולהנאתך"...אלא שהנסיון היה שאברהם הבחין בצער הנשארים....So: his passing-no matter which side of the political divide we stand on-leaves us bewilderd, grief-stricken, deeply vexed.אבלות contains within it an element of תשובה...It is therefore appropriate for us to examine ourselves & learn if we in any way can improve what we are doing/how acting so as to avoid such catastrophes in futureLet me begin these few ruminations by saying that in addition to shock and grief, I for one experienced a vital element of תשובה, and that is: בושה...It was one of us-a religious student, who did it-even if he is a mad man...We have been civilized-by Torah, by social sanctions, by parental training, by moral conscience. That constraining inhibition is powerful in most people. I But in some it is exceedingly weak. A person so poorly endowed can lead an otherwise normal life for a long time, but place him in an environment which is permissive of violence, which exposes him to harsh talk, to hype, to unrestrained overstatement, to irrational and undisciplined expression-and anti-social urges buried deep within his sick psyche will explode in an unspeakably ugly display of hostility that turns men into monsters, society into a jungle, and civilization into chaos.Our responsibility is to avoid such an environment, never to be guilty of having, knowingly or unknowingly, encouraged such bestiality.Our responsibility is to be responsible, to recognize that violent rhetoric invariably l…
Lech Lecha Modern Orthodoxy Eulogies & Memorials Passionate Moderation Zionism

Outline

In Tribute to Col. Ilan Ramon (2003)

We meet on vry sad day, stunnd by the loss of 7 precious ppi of grt accomplshmnts. We esp grieve bee we, w all Israelis, expeetd this t b day jubilation f country beset w econ / secrty / polit problms – roller coaster – fr depression to anticipn of joy to catasrtophe. ושמתיה... והפלתי חגיכם לאבל וכל שיריכם לקינה – in words Amos – לאבל יחיד (only son). It = day of אבל by רבים f a יחיד – Isr Col. Ilan Ramon, זכרונו לברכה – ouir newest natyl hero of Isr. Esp painful ironic coincdnc: הירמ... אדר מדנה בשמחה. I cannt begin these wrds of tribute w-o mention powrfl / movg announcmt by Pres Bush, genuinly spl words befittg truly relig person. Quoted Isa. 40 – שאו מרום עיניכם וראו מי ברא אלה המוציא במספר צבאם לכולם בשם יקרא מרוב אונים ואמיץ כח איש לא נעדר. Bush added: “Th same creatr who names th stars also knows th names of th 7 souls we mourn today.” So we gathr t mourn these 7 gallnt m & w whose lives snufd out just 16 min’s bfr scheduld landng: Michael Anderson, David Brown, Willie McCool, Rick Husband, Kalpana Cvhawla, Laurel Clark, & Ilan Ramon, עליהם השלום. Tyiod we mourn them, and esp are we assembld t bemoan our co-relgionst, Col. Ramon. There = mch we mst learn fr lf / dtli of Ramon. Bec he = neithr דתי nor אנטי-דתי – slf-proclmd “sec t” who nvrthless דרך ארץ f tor, j trad. Took along ס״ת – & proudly showd it t world fr space. What a זכות – lk משה who went up t rev tora / bring it down, s too IR went up / bringng תורת משה w him t display t his ppi on earth. Indeed, Ramon provd tht heavns = sympthtic t tor: midrash – דרש פלטיון איש רומי ואמר נתלש הר סיני ונצב בשמי מרום, והיו ישראל נתונים תחתיו, שנאמר ותקרבון ותעמדו תחת ההר. Heaven / D–VM – metaphor, not literal. In continpltg lf / dth Col. Ramon, occurs t me: how strange, paradoxicl a ppi are we! This wk 400,000 of Isr citizens voted f Shinui, a polit prty dcdictd t an anti-orth bias. (Now not = tm t ponder whcthr / not we frum js = partially t blame f this reactn.) T11ey = dcmonstratg an impatience w rc…
Parshat Zachor & Purim Torah & Technology Neviim Eulogies & Memorials

Speech

Memorial Address for the Sheloshim Commemoration of the Death of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1995)

They planned the assassination with few doubts in their mind as to the justice of the terrible deed they were about to perpetrate. They just knew they had to get rid of him, that only that way would they protect the integrity of the people of Israel from his egotistical designs. Their animosity drew from two deep, dark, irrational sources: their hatred for the man – who did he think he is to lord it over them, to tell them what to do? – and their envy: they were deeply jealous of him, and therefore mistrusted his vision, his dreams, his plans for the future. And so they decided to murder him without thought as to the consequences. They were lucky – at the last moment their eldest brother intervened, as Reuben pleaded with them to spare Joseph's life and he stalled for time by recommending that they sell him into slavery instead. And so Reuben saved Joseph from the brothers of whom we readi that וישנאו אותו and ויקנאו בו אחיו (Gen. 37:4,11). But when it came to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, no Reuben was to be found in time to save him. The Reubens of our time – the Rabbis and the Roshei Yeshiva and the academicians and the journalists and the politicians and the pundits and the intellectuals – were too busy, they were engaged in more important things and could pay no attention to the escalating verbal violence all around them, to the wild epithets shot like bullets by and on all sides in the increasingly bitter polemics. And so this בעל החלומות. this dreamer, reviled and envied by some and admired and revered by so many others, was murdered in cold blood and lowered into the בור, to his final resting place. The Midrash [איכה רבה (וילנא) פתיחתות] describes what went on in Heaven on the day the First Temple was destroyed: אמר הקב״ה לירמיה אני דומה היום לאדם שהיה לו בן יחידי ועשה לו חופה ומת בתוך חופתו, ואין לך באב לא עלי ולא על בניי לך וקרא לאברהם ליצחק וליעקב ומשה מקבריהם שהם יודעים לבכות... מיד הלך ירמיה למערת המכפלה ואמר לאבות העולם, עמדו,שהג…
Eulogies & Memorials Passionate Moderation Zionism