Something good

I'm sorry to be posting yet another serious post - it's unusual and I hope you will excuse me. But blogs are a window into who were are, aren't they... I want to blog about new shoes, more cake, a new cafe but, you see, I'm just not in the right frame of mind.

The news from Bombay - I can't seem to shake off the sadness, I need to express it. I think about the families of all those who died from all over the world. What must they be going through? It was so indiscriminate! Some weren't Jewish or American or British - they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Rabbi and his wife who died, they were just so good it almost hurts. They offered shelter to travellers and decorated these rooms with marble floors and modern furniture whilst they themselves lived in much more deprived conditions. The more I read the worse I feel. I feel so angry, so helpless.

But I know that there is only one way to fight back, and that is with goodness, with kindness. Today I wrote long, painful emails to the people I know in Chabad. It was so hard. The Chabad website asks us all (Jews and non-Jews alike) to pledge a mitzvah, a good deed, in honour of all those who died. I resolve to study more about my faith and about other people's faith - now is a time for togetherness (so touched by the Christian responses that came in) - to find time to pray, light Shabbos candles and do something in the community. I am just one person and I have no pretensions about my importance. But I also know what I feel compelled to do. I feel very strongly that now is the time to fight terrorism with all the goodness that we can summon.