In 1933 the Nazis opened up
the concentration camp called Dachau in Germany.
The Jews who were arrested and interrogated there were killed. Their bodies were sent in sealed coffins to the nearby Munich Jewish community accompanied by strict instructions that the coffins were to remain sealed.
My Grandfather, Tzvi Landau ztzl was on the Chevra Kaddisha, the burial society, in Munich. He ignored the instructions and opened the coffins in order to ritually purify the bodies before burial, doing a process called Tahara.
When he opened the coffins, he was horrified by what he saw.
The people had been tortured and their bodies mutilated.
This moved by grandfather to speak to a Rabbi who was his mentor. The Rabbi told him to go to Palestine (as Israel was known then) as terrible things were on the horizon.
My Grandfather listened to this unlikely suggestion.
He saved his wife and children by doing so.
I thought a lot about my Grandfather today when we saw the hideous scene of the return of the coffins.
Suddenly 1933 did not seem so far away.
We are all reeling from the tragic news.
And the story is still not resolved, the beasts have put an unidentified body in one of those coffins.
Just like my Grandfather, we are horrified by what was seen when the coffin was unsealed.
The weather in Israel matched the mood.
Raining
Gloomy
Dark skies
But the Jewish people is indestructible.

All around us are heroes and heroines who continue to inspire us.
Our daughter and her husband are in Israel right now.
They shared that they were honored to meet Yiska Steinberg, the widow of Yonatan Steinberg, the highest ranking IDF soldier killed in October 7 while defending his country.
Yiska is going to raise their 6 children by herself.
She shared poignantly how she manages to keep her husband’s memory alive.
He actually taught her that remembrance is not just remembering the past.
It is in fact an active process whereby we look at the person who has gone and we analyze the traits the person embodied and we learn from those characteristics. By actively identifying and emulating those attributes we allow the person to continue to live amongst us.
The person is a live source of inspiration and direction, constantly pointing us upward and forward.
So while we are mired in the pain of loss, something we must make space for and acknowledge, we continue to grow.
Remembrance means finding ways to elevate the holy Neshamas.
We can do so by carefully examining the life of that person and focusing on their amazing traits and then allow those traits to inform our behaviors.
Will we take on a new Mitzva?
Will we step out of our comfort zone to incorporate an elevated action in the merit of those we have lost?
This way they continue to live amongst us.
In this way they continue to live.
The skies are crying with us.
There are so many broken hearts.
But if those broken hearts come together, “like one person, with one heart” we can use the strengths of those we have lost to bolster each other and help us heal.
May Gd Avenge their blood.
Shabbat Shalom and from a broken heart, so much love!