Today we see again a senseless shooting in an American city on the same day we observe the remembrance of the Shoah. Sadly an innocent Jew who survived all of these years after being delivered from the Nazi death machine gave his life trying to disarm the attacker. Rumanian-born Prof. Liviu Librescu, 75 was an Israeli citizen and taught engineering at Virginia Tech where the shooting occurred. May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. Had Prof. Librescu been in Israel his home perhaps the end of the story would have been different. Israelis
carry their weapons. Since the ’73 war every soldier on leave must carry their rifle most of the time and anyone else with a permit (settlers and others with a reason to carry) are actively encouraged by the police to carry their weapon when in public. Had this happened here the likelihood that this killer being neutralized quickly is high, unfortunately schools and colleges in the US have become “gun free”
a very safe place for a killer to do their work without being interrupted.
We are very careful that Innocent life including one’s own must be protected as we learn in Talmud Sanhedrin, discussing the burglar, mentioned in the Torah, who tunnels in knowing he may have to confront and kill the homeowner. We learn that if a person is coming up to kill you you must go up and kill him first.
That said I must admit that both times in university I carried, which was against the university rules. Fortunately there were no deadly metal detectors on campus at the time so my classmates had some protection from murderers. Unfortunately nobody saw fit to ignore the student rule book on Monday and they lost a chance to save many innocent lives.
The Virginia Shootings, Israel, and the Shoah, by David in Israel
