A Rabbi's Thoughts

I’m kind of numb. Some people turn to me for answers on “how could this happen?” I’ll save you time. I don’t know. All that I can think about right now is what does Mrs. Chava Sandler answer her one year old surviving son when he wakes up in middle the night crying “Papa! Papa!”
Her next child Gavriel was only four years old when his short life came to an end. But one of the beautiful pictures of him is sucking a lolly on the day of his Opshernis, the traditional hair cutting ceremony at the age of three; just before he would have started reading this week’s Parsha.
The Midrash (and subsequent Jewish tradition) tell us that when young Jewish children are brought for their first day of learning in “Cheder” the first verse they read is from this week’s Parsha at the opening book of Vayikra Leviticus.
Why? Because since the book of Leviticus is primarily focused on the service of the tribe of Levi (hence the name Leviticus) with Sacrifices in the Sanctuary of God, “let these pure ones (the children) come and engage with these pure ones (the sacrifices).”
Interestingly however, in the entire book of Leviticus the Sacrifices are never referred to as “pure.”
One of the only times that we see “pure” in reference to a Sacrifice is much earlier on in the Story of Noach post the flood, approximately a thousand years before the whole Mitzvah of Sacrifices was given at Sinai.
So the terms “pure” then hints to a level of our relationship of God that transcends the relationship that began at Sinai with the giving of the Torah and Mitzvot.
This then is why the Sacrifice was a form of repentance for someone who damaged that relationship with a transgression of sin; the Sacrifice highlights a relationship with God that can’t be damaged, ever, by anything.
It’s almost like saying that if Sinai represents adulthood in our relationship with God, then Noah’s era represents pure childhood. And the sacrifices are forever a way of refreshing the simplicity of that child-like relationship with our beloved Parent in heaven
So just a few months ago little Gavriel Sandler, like millions of Jewish children for generations before him, probably started his first day of Cheder at Gan Rashi Preschool in Toulouse, by “engaging with these pure ones.”
Please God “let these pure ones” Gavriel, Aryeh, their holy father Rabbi Jonathan, and little Miriam, “come and engage with these pure ones” their little brother, their mother, bringing them comfort from their special place in heaven, and with the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days, engaged and reunited in a warm embrace with them again.