Bringing a light into the world
Bringing a little light to the world
One thing which will probably go under the radar is the Israeli efforts in Haiti. So if I won’t toot their horn who will – the Toronto Star? Not only have a number of people been saved by the Israeli rescue efforts but Israel was among one the first countries to deploy their crack rescue teams. If anyone knows how to operate a rescue effort or set up a field hospital under trying conditions – its the Israelis. This story comes from Arutz Sheva and mostly centres on the ZAKA volunteer efforts in Haiti.
(IsraelNN.com) Volunteers from ZAKA, the religious emergency rescue group, said that they experienced a “hellish” Sabbath in Haiti but also experienced stirring moments during the Sabbath prayer. The ZAKA delegation arrived in Haiti on Thursday after taking part in rescue operations, collection of bodies and identification at another disaster scene – the site of the helicopter crash in Mexico in which Jewish financier and philanthropist Moshe Saba was killed.
The ZAKA delegation decided to take charge of rescue operations at the ruins of the Haiti university building, an eight story structure that collapsed. They worked around the clock, assisted by members of the Jewish emergency rescue team of Mexico, which had accompanied them from their previous mission, and using equipment from the Mexican army. They succeeded in extricating eight Haitian students who were still alive and suffering from various degrees of injury, after spending 38 hours trapped under the wreckage. News of this success circulated among other rescue crews and added to their motivation, encouraging them not to give up on the possibility of finding survivors under the ruins.
And their Sabbath.
The delegation members described their Sabbath experience as “hell,” with hundreds of bodies strewn all about with nobody there to bury them, and the stench of rotting flesh in the air. The group held the Sabbath prayers amidst the ruins, and later described “a surrealistic sight of Jews wrapped in tallitot [prayer shawls] atop fallen buildings.” Many of the local people believed that the Jews were praying for the well-being of the injured and to the memory of the dead, and gathered around them to watch the prayers. Dozens of the onlookers approached the Jewish delegation when the prayer was over and kissed their tallitot.
The volunteers reported a particularly moving moment when they reached the verse “He Who looks at the earth and it quakes,” which is taken from Psalms 104 and is a part of the Sabbath prayer. They said that many of them shook physically at this point, when they realized for the first time what terrible consequences the verse refers to.
This was one of the first articles I read Saturday night. It was the imagery of Jews at prayer which tugged at my heartstrings. There is something about the sight of a Jew at prayer – its a powerful and haunting ethos for me, and yet, it never fails to humble me at the same time.
