Q: What should be our reaction to the destruction of the Pan Am jetliner?
A: The first
thing is to thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu that you weren’t there. Very important! That’s one of the big reasons that things happen in this world. אין הקדוש ברוך הוא מביא פרעניות אלא בשביל ישראל. Any misfortunes are for the purpose of Am Yisrael. And Rashi says, ליראם – to frighten them, they should do teshuva.
So the first thing is to think, “Did I ever travel on an airplane?” Yes, certainly. And look, I’m still here. Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem!
So you start saying, “Well, most of the cases they don’t crash, so I don’t have to think about that.”
No. It’s a mistake. You’re misusing that thing. That incident has to be utilized properly in order to gain more gratitude to Hashem.
Now if we’ll study more about it, we’ll learn there were twenty frum Jews who were scheduled to take that airplane but they were rerouted for a certain reason. Now Hakadosh Baruch Hu was rerouting them. It’s a true fact. Twenty frum Jews were supposed to be on that plane and they weren’t. It was the yad Hashem.
Of course, they themselves should always, all their lives, think about that and sing to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But we also have to study that, however. It’s up to us also to study that and to see that everyone that was there on that plane was led there by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He was sentenced by Hashem beforehand.
Why were they sentenced? Hashem knows, but He brought them all together in one place where all those people were destined to lose their lives and that’s why it happened that moment. Nothing happens by accident.
Of course, if they could find the terrorist who planted the bomb there, if it was up to me, they wouldn’t just kill him. They’d put him to death by slow torture in order to teach a lesson. The nations of the world are insane in their leniency to criminals, especially to criminals of terrorism. The nations are insane.
The liberals are the worst enemies of public safety. And we should vote against every liberal politician. We should vote against every liberal who runs for office because they are our deadly enemies. All the Jews who were killed and are being constantly killed, Jews are being killed constantly and nothing is done, it’s due to the liberals. So when a liberal goes to legislature or wherever he goes and takes his seat, he is now becoming your deadly enemy. He’s going to keep the murderers encouraged all their time, because they know nothing will happen to them as long as that liberal is in office.
However, in addition to the great lesson how important it is for us to be stern in judgment and to learn that you must punish criminals – otherwise the world has no existence; without justice there cannot be any safety in the world – but in addition to that, we have to learn how important it is for us always to be on guard with yiras Hashem. Nobody can know when he is sentenced, chas v’Shalom.
And he may be packing his valise and he’s full of joy going for a happy trip. He doesn’t know that he is going now to his final execution. And at all times, a man must be ready with yiras Hashem. At all times a person should think, “Who knows what can happen?”
And do you know when you should think about that? When you fall tachnun. רחום וחנון חטאתי לפניך – I sinned before you, ה’ אל באפך תוכיחני – please, Hashem, don’t rebuke me in Your wrath. Ask Hashem constantly when you fall on your face! That’s why you fall on your face – you’re asking for rachamim! You prayed already; you just finished Shemoneh Esrei but maybe it didn’t help, however. Maybe, despite your prayer, the sentence was passed. So now a condemned man falls on his arm and he bursts out with tachanunim – “Please!” That’s why it’s tachnun: “Hashem, please, please, recall the decree!”
That’s how important it is to say tachnun with an outcry all the time. Every time, cry out to Hashem. That’s how important it is. Nobody can know what’s in store for him. And therefore, it always pays beforehand to cry out to Hashem.