Etz Chaim: The Tree of Life. How painfully ironic. The metaphoric expression “Tree of Life” ( Etz Chaim in Hebrew) is a mystical symbol within the Kabbala of esoteric Judaism used to describe the path to God. Yesterday’s unredeemable act of evil within the walls of The Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburg is physically,…
There are three Conservative Jewish congregations in Pittsburgh’s heavily Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Two of the congregations, both based in the building of the Tree of Life synagogue, were attacked Saturday by an anti-Semitic gunman who killed eleven people. It is unclear when they’ll be allowed to return to their building, which is still an…
Sometimes, maybe it is the same for you, I come to shul on Shabbat and just look around. I am trying to understand the stories of all the people who have come to pray. There are the wide-eyed newcomers, so polite. There are the insiders, and the ones who came for the bar mitzvah, unmistakable…
Judah Samet was four minutes late to synagogue. Services at Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh start at 9:45 A.M. Samet, who is 80 years old, pulled into a handicapped spot in front of the building on the morning of October 27 at 9:49. “Somebody knocked on my window,” Samet said the next day. “There…
The Pittsburgh Steelers held a moment of silence before their game Sunday in honor of the 11 murdered in the shooting at a local synagogue. Minutes before kickoff against the Cleveland Browns, the team reminded fans in a tweet. The men in orange and black went on to win 33-14. Prior to kickoff at @heinzfield,…
The suspected gunman who killed 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the most deadly attack ever on the Jewish community in the United States likely acted alone, officials said on Sunday. The shooter stormed the building during a Saturday morning service, fatally shooting 11 mostly elderly people and wounding six others including four police…
The Saturday morning massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Congregation is unique in a certain sense. The murder of 11 Pittsburgh synagogue congregants by a white supremacist gunman is by far the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. But while it’s the worst, it’s not the first, nor the second nor even the 10th case…
It happened on Parshat Vayera. The worst anti-Semitic attack in American history occurred while Jews around the world were reading the Torah portion that tells the story of Lot, an immigrant. Lot moves to Sodom, and prospers there. The Midrash says he becomes a judge. His daughters intermarry with the locals. Then one day, while…
