Some people tell me that I'm good with words...well maybe sometimes, but not tonight...
What can I say, a year ago I was on a powerful high after an amazing week with the Rebbe's Shluchim at the annual conference in NYC.
Then, the news hit... screens were flashing Sky News updates about a terrorist attack in Mumbai including on a Jewish Centre.
Suddenly that high wasn't so high after all... When the final dreadful news came through on Friday afternoon, I dropped into a low which I didn't think I would ever get out of...
Well,what can I say today those walls of loss, pain and depression were torn down with a powerful energy of joy and celebration that pierced through the darkness with a brilliant light that will shine the world over...
As Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg, father of Rivky Holtzberg of blessed memory, lifted the Torah, a Torah that was written by thousands of people from around the world in memory of our beloved colleaugues in Mumbai and the kedoshim murdered with them, it just burst....
The tears, the pain, the joy and celebration, a paradox of epic proportions, created an energy that suddenly lifted us all up...
It carried us above those tense moments waiting for news, the shock and disbelief of when it finally came, the days of agony waiting for the closure, the nagging sense that it would never come.... Suddenly that was all washed away...
As the majestic scroll was wrapped by Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg, Rabbi Gabi's ob"m's father, the 2,000 Shluchim packed into the atrium, and the 4,000 plus Chassidim gathered outside watching on screens. It felt as if this Torah's Golden Embroidery paid tribute to the Six Martyrs of the Mumbai Chabad Houseas and as that scroll was lifted into the air , we suddenly felt them back with us...
Yes, I know this may sound strange to you sitting in your office early Friday am, but last night here in Brooklyn we were lifted, all 6,000 of us to a world where time and space, matter and spirit, heaven and earth, were totally elevated...
As the NYPD painted the city blue for blocks on end, the flamobyantly lit up sound truck led the crowd of thousands in their swirling circles down the main Parkway of Brooklyn.
My dear friends, what can I tell you, tongiht as we were dancing, I just knew that Gabi and Rivky were there with us, the holy Jews of the Chabad House were watching us.. My friends, tonight the Rebbe was dancing with the Shluchim and all of us...
It was One Torah, given to us by One G-d, reminding us that we are One People... from Cape Town to Brooklyn, from heaven to earth, tonight we were all dancing together...
Next week the Torah will be traveling to Mumbai and carry that eternal Jewish spirit with us... Where others destroyed, this Torah will rebuild, where other brought death, this Torah will bring life...
Yes, I may sound like I'm on a bit of a high but after the lows that we've been through, I think we've all earned ourselves a bit of a high...
And I'm not leaving the high in Brooklyn; I'll bring it home next week.