Like many people, I was appalled and shaken when I found out about the terror attack a few days ago in downtown Jerusalem. A terrorist, who was employed by the city, used a tractor while on the job to attack pedestrians, cars and buses. The last number I heard was that three had died, seven were in critical condition and 44 are in the hospital with injuries. No one around was spared the bulldozing attack of this heartless terrorist, and the trauma is one that will never be forgotten.
I am currently expecting, G-d willing my third child. A friend of mine, who is expecting around this time, almost got on a the bus that was overturned. When I hear about this story, I am reminded of the Café Hillel bombing, which occurred less than a mile away from where I was living just two weeks before I gave birth to my first child. It is strange yet typical that mothers living in the Land of Israel have memories of births punctuated by news of terror attacks.
A young mother in a car, one of the casualties of this most recent attack, threw her 6 month baby out of the car window to save the child’s life as the tractor flattened her and the other passenger. According to one report, I heard the baby was caught by a bystander and is fine. I also heard the baby received care in the hospital. In either case, this was a woman who had to act fast to save the life of her child, and I cannot imagine making such a decision. I hope I will never have to.
My mother asked me why I live in Israel with my children amid so much terror. My answer is, where can we go to escape it? The fall of the Twin Towers destroyed thousands of lives in one day, more than have been killed in the Land of Israel in terror attacks. I remember during the Lebanon War, my husband contemplated getting out to Seattle, where we have friends. A day later, there as a shooting in a Jewish center in Seattle.
The Previous Rebbe of Lubavitch, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn told his followers, who were braving problems with the Communists that “every bullet has a name on it.” We cannot fight Divine Providence which governs everything. We can only pray and have faith that the ideal time will arrive, the time of the Jewish Messiah who will finally bring complete peace to the world.