Rabbi Feldman, Rabbi of Emek Bracha, the Orthodox shul of Palo Alto, shared the following at Chabad at Stanford’s memorial for Amir, March 29, 2004.
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I didn’t come here to speak, but to praise…
Amir would come to say Kaddish at Emek Bracha. We spoke in the beginning, and then weeks stretched into weeks/months, and we didn’t have a meaningful conversation, so I told him 2 weeks ago that I was telling my wife about him and invited him to come for Shabbes. He said, I won’t be able to until after Pesach…am I in trouble? I said, you’re not in high school anymore – the Rabbi doesn’t invite you for Shabbat just because you’re in trouble!
There is very little to say for these very, very significant events. One thing that I appreciate very much…the only thing that can sort of serve to envelop this pain is a community. I appreciate that this community was able to come together, but one coming together is not going to do the job. That is why there are these sets of mourning periods – the week, the month, the year. I would urge people not to rely on a single cry but to continue to talk this out and share – there is no way to turn it into a livable scar, a livable scar unless it can be understood in the context of community…