I published this piece today on The Times of Israel. I’m placing it here for those who might not otherwise see it. May we please hear better news soon.
23 year old Shlomit Krigman was buried in Jerusalem today.
Yesterday, two Arab terrorists entered her community while she was grocery shopping and stabbed her in the head.
And today, she died.
But it wasn’t only 23 year old Shlomit who was murdered.
Her 83 year old self, contentedly sitting in a rocking chair by the fire and reflecting on a life well lived – she was murdered.
And the dreams of the man she would one day marry – the man who is waiting out there somewhere – they were murdered.
And the sound of laughter with the delivery of her first child was murdered.
The sound of exhaustion with the delivery of her second, and the sound of exhilaration with the delivery of her third. They were all murdered.
The accomplishments her future children would have had were all murdered as well. Every single one, every accomplishment, every achievement, every future invention was buried with her today.
The glimmer in her eye when her first child became a bar mitzvah; when her daughter spoke of love in the kitchen with her at two in the morning; the smile of knowing appreciation when the little one graduated from high school and got into the army unit of his choice. Murdered.
Murdered, too, were her future grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and so on. Peace makers, trailblazers, settlers of the land; people of great spirit and fortitude and truth and determination; people who might have changed the world, who might have invented, created, transformed our lives. People who would have surely loved, hated, screamed, danced, admired, rejected, dreamed and designed.
Murdered.
All of them murdered.
So today, as we buried a beautiful, vibrant, giving young woman, all that I could think about were the hundreds, if not thousands, of future generations peering down from the clouds and watching the burial. The hundreds, if not thousands, of people who will not come to pass with her murder; who will not have the opportunity to BE, to DO and to CREATE because of the slash of one terrorists’ knife, because of the hatred of one teenager and those who are indoctrinating him. A kid.
And when they say that one person can save the world, they can also say that one murder can destroy the world. Because today, it destroyed the world of Shlomit Krigman and of all future, vast worlds that she was entitled to create, and to have and to hold in what should have been a long, peaceful and joyous life and legacy.
