English Blog

Shock

Horror 

Pain 

Grief 

Outrage 

The horrific murder of 20 beautiful children and 7 innocent adults rocked our nation—and the entire world—this week. Our hearts are heavy, our eyes filled with tears. We cry for the Newtown community, and pray for the comfort and healing of all the families. 

This massacre, perhaps more than any other, has hit home. We’ve all been students. We all know teachers. Many of us are parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. We know the purity of children and absolute ferocity of parental love. 

This was no accident. This was brutal, targeted evil. In a school. A school! The place many of our children spend the majority of their waking hours. A safe place. A refuge. 

As a father, my heart clenches wildly when I think about the families of the children in Newtown. Words cannot even begin to describe their pain and their longing. 

As the parent of a school-aged child, my respect and admiration goes out to all the teachers and staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Lauren Rousseau. Anne Marie Murphy. Dawn Hochsprung. Rachel Davino. Mary Sherlach. Victoria Soto. Each one is a hero in her own right. Each died trying to protect their young students.  

The teachers who survived are no less heroic. The way they stayed calm and tried to distract the students in the face of terror is incredible. They hid them, reassured them, colored with them, read to them, told them they loved them—all while knowing the gunman could burst in at any moment.  

They were all normal people, going about their daily lives. They woke up, ate breakfast (or not), and went to work like they did the day before and planned to do the following day. They were not first responders or trained crises professionals. They were people like you and me. But when the crisis hit, they shone. In the moment that it counted most they responded with courage, confidence and clarity.

When we think of heroes, we typically think of people like Abraham, Moses, Joshua and Queen Esther—the famous ones. Extraordinary people who changed the course of world history.

But do we ever consider ourselves potential heroes? What about all the “ordinary” people we deal with on a daily basis? 

Perhaps it’s time to change that perception. It doesn’t take a Moses to be a hero. The Mishna teaches us that a person who saves a single life is considered to have saved an entire world. The teachers of Sandy Hook did just that. They each saved an entire world. 

Chassidic thought explains that each of us—at our very essence—is a hero. Unfortunately, sometimes that essence is covered by a “spirit of folly,” a layer of dirt, and we do not act like heroes. But when we allow that inner purity to shine, we can accomplish the incredible.

We need to do that more often. We need to peel off the layers of grime and express our inner hero with acts of goodness and kindness on a daily basis. Don’t wait for a moment of crisis (please G-d there should never be another one) – do it now! 

And the truth is, those teachers were heroes before we had ever heard of them. Every day they loved and cared for those children intensely. They taught them, played with them, listened to them and helped them. They didn’t need to die to be heroes – they tapped into their inner goodness each and every day. 

We, too, can do that. When we put other’s needs ahead of our own—that is an act of heroism. When we pick up the phone and call a friend in need with offers of help and support – or even just a listening ear—that is heroic. When we let go of a grudge and embrace forgiveness, we are revealing our inner goodness.  When we help ease someone’s loneliness, put a child’s needs before our own or go out of our way to help a complete stranger—we’re doing small acts of G-dliness. The Lubavitcher Rebbe felt strongly that public schools should begin each morning with a moment of silence – a moment of G-dliness. Perhaps it’s time to revisit that idea.

We can’t whitewash the tragedy that unfolded last week, nor do we want to. We need to cry with and support with the families of the Newtown victims. The brutal massacre will always be remembered for the 27 angels whose lives were prematurely ended—of that there is no doubt. But maybe, just maybe, we can stem the tide of evil by taking inspiration from those heroic teachers and making a conscious effort to make heroic choices in our day-to-day lives. 

May the victims’ families and friends—and all the children of Sandy Hook Elementary, and the residents of Newtown—find comfort and consolation. You are in our thoughts, our hearts and our prayers. 

My thanks to Avi Shlomo for the idea and inspiration of this article