Far From Zion

Open Doors

I hope, in spite of the news that a U.S. citizen posed as a Jew in order to case the Chabad House in Mumbai for the terrorists who murdered Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah that Jewish outreach organizations around the world will keep their doors open for all in spiritual or practical need when they are far from home.

An important moment in the narrative of the Jewish people comes at Genesis 18, when three strangers come to Abraham (they are, apparently the Lord and two angels) and Abraham, in spite of the heat of the midday sun, shows them hospitality. Three strangers to old Abraham and old Sarah in the desert. They were certainly vulnerable and these strangers could have been anyone–nomadic bandits or cattle raiders or any kind of terror, but, before knowing who they were, Abraham bowed to them, made himself vulnerable to them, and for that, he was blessed.

I believe there is great power in opening the doors, in making ourselves vulnerable. As the Mumbai terrorists have shown, the consequences can  be truly terrible, but I do hope that brave souls will continue to fling open to doors to Jewish life and Jewish institutions around the world, in spite of the risks. Some who walk through the doors will be enemies, some will be friends. You never know when one will be angel.