A Kiddush Hashem in Golders Green: D’var Torah for Parshat Emor
This week on the streets of Golders Green, we witnessed a great Kiddush Hashem.
What do I mean by this?
In Parshat Emor, the Torah gives us the mitzvah of Kiddush Hashem. It’s a precept to sanctify the name of God.
“וְנִקְדַּשְׁתִּי בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל”
“I will be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel.”
Notice that it’s not an imperative “you must sanctify my name”, but rather the passive, “I will be sanctified in your midst.” Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky taught that this is the only one of the 613 mitzvot which is incumbent upon everybody, even a child. From the moment we’re born, we can perform this mitzvah. And it is so very true, as some of the greatest exemplars of this mitzvah, are children.
Our children are amongst the very best advertisement for true Torah way of life. Their passion, their enthusiasm, their love of their Yiddishkeit, their natural kindness is such an enormous inspiration for us.
This week, for the saddest of reasons, we saw a great Kiddush Hashem on the streets of Golders Green. Nobody intended to perform this commandment, but it shone forth from them. There was a horrific attempt to take Jewish life, as well as an attack on the police at the scene. Baruch Hashem, the two victims will survive – but they have been injured badly.
The Shomrim volunteers performed a Kiddush Hashem through all of their efforts, as well as the Hatzola volunteers. This is the same Hatzola organisation whose four ambulances were burnt before Pesach, just up the same road – and now they were on the scene to tend to the terrorist who had been tasered by the police.
They proved that their actions are not only for the sake of the Jewish community, but for everyone in need. What a great Kiddush Hashem, to show that our natural chesed, our loving kindness towards people is extended to others, even under such circumstances.
Last Shabbat, the first after the Kenton Synagogue attack, our shuls were more full than on many other occasions. And I have no doubt that we will go to our Jewish stores now, more than before, because we’re resilient, and we’re strong. We engage with fortitude, and we want to contribute to a world which will be full of peace and security. Our response is to show we won’t be cowed.
We won’t be intimidated. On the contrary, we will do what we can in the form of a Kiddush Hashem, to promote goodness within our troubled world. And may Almighty God help us to succeed in our efforts.
Shabbat Shalom.
