Brit Milah Held in Terror Attack Synagogue; ‘In Your Bloods You Shall Live’ (VIDEO)
by Dave Bender
In a profound display of faith in the face of carnage, the family of a newborn infant on Wednesday held his circumcision ceremony at the Jerusalem synagogue where terrorists slaughtered worshipers and a police officer exactly 24-hours earlier, Israel’s Ch. 2 News reported.
“This is Judaism – from tragedy to joy,” said Mohel Association Chairman, Chaim Miller, who performed the festive ancient ritual – symbolizing the eight-day-old infant’s joining the Jewish people – at the B’nai Torah synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood.
The community of devout Jews is still grieving over the murders by a pair of Palestinian terrorists Tuesday morning.
At one point in the joyous ceremony, worshipers recite a passage from Ezekiel 16:6: “I passed over you and saw you wallowing in your bloods, and I said to you, ‘In your blood you shall live’; and I said to you, ‘In your blood you shall live.'”
“When you say ‘In your blood you shall live,’ you understand the meaning – especially on such a day,” Miller stressed after the emotional ceremony held in the room which had been awash in blood and pain a day earlier.
Miller said “I was here yesterday at seven-ten in the morning,” precisely as the attackers rampaged through the small hall, one opening fire at point-blank range on the gathered men, while the second hacked at them with a butcher’s meat cleaver, as they stood wrapped in religious garments and deep in silent prayer.
“I am a Zaka medic,” Miller said simply, referring to the strictly observant EMS-recovery service, all too often seen providing first aid and collecting the remains of those killed in similar terror attacks, for proper Jewish burial.
“We have to move on, pray over the past and hope for the future,” he said.
“This is Judaism – from tragedy to joy,” he mused, adding that, “We will add on another chapter of reading Psalms, in fervent prayer for the speedy recovery of the wounded.”
The father of the child said his family decided to hold the ceremony as planned in the synagogue, and not despite the massacre – but rather because of it: “My grandfather built an empire of Torah in Cleveland after the Holocaust,” he said.
“It symbolizes rebirth. We do not waste energy. We are a hunted People, and yet we only grow stronger.”
Watch a brief video clip of the ceremony: