לקדש את שמו ברבים

Like many others, last night after Shabbat I anxiously turned on the radio dreading the possibility of bad news from the stand-off in India, and sure enough our worst fears were confirmed as we found out that the Jews in the Mumbai Chabad House returned their souls to their Maker in a tragic sanctification of G-d's name.

The tragedy was even more real for me after I spoke to a neighbour who often travels to India on business and has often stayed at the Beit Chabad and knew the Holtzbergs personally. He had a business partner who was in India last week, but Baruch Hashem was not hurt, even though he was in a hotel near the site of one of the attacks. He came home safely before Shabbat.

We should remember each of the victims in the attacks in Mumbai including:

• Rabbi Gabi Holtzberg and his wife Rivka who dedicated their entire lives to spreading G-d's Holy word.
• Bentzion Chroman who died while learning Gemara in the Library of the Chabad House, the Zaka volunteers found Messechat Brachot open and covered with blood in front of his lifeless body.
• Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, son of the Volover Rebbe from Boro Park, who was in India as a Mashgiach Kashrut for airline meals
• Yocheved Orpaz and the other visitors who were in the Chabad House at the time of the attack
  

Of course we should also remember Gabi and Rivka's son, Moshe who celebrated his second birthday on Shabbat in the arms of his grandparents who flew to India from Israel. This child who is now an orphan and who will always celebrate his birthday together with the Yhartzeit of both his parents. Like his namesake, this Moshe was saved from almost certain death in the arms of a non-Jewish woman, Sandra Samuel the baby's metapelet who heroically carried little Moshe to safety as she fled the building.

May Their Souls Be Bound in the Bonds of Eternal Life