Discussion for article #242137
Let’s hope it wasn’t arson.
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if it was, it will be treated as domestic terrorism. Unless there was a gun or the temple was providing abortions, then it’s one of those regrettable incidents that no one can do anything about.
/sorrowful angry snark
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The fire blazed from right to left.
As a Jew, I can’t help but think of Rabbi Haninah ben Taradion (2nd Century), one of the Ten Martyrs mentioned in the Midrash “Eleh Ezkerah”, which is recited on Yom Kippur. Rabbi Haninah ben Taradion was one that defied an order under Roman Emperor Hadrian, that banned the teaching of the Torah and was killed for his act of defiance.
The Romans burned him alive alongside some members of his family in a very painful and cruel way by wrapping him in the Torah scroll and then adding wet wool over him, putting him on a pyre of green wood to prolong the burning, and then making sure to fan the flames.
The story goes that when asked by his followers what he saw, Rabbi Taradion’s last words were essentially, “I see the parchment burning while the letters of the Law soar upward.” Like I say, The Ten Martyrs is a well-known part of the service on the Day of Atonement.
Just kinda reminded me of that…
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I doubt that it was arson- only because it’s a wide street. near a large hotel, J and J headquarters and a 4 star restaurant so the police patrol there all the time. The synagogue would have been a very high risk target.