18 Adar 5756 return For other texts or commentaries see the Parashah Archive Register to subscribe to Parashat HaShavuah for free. Send this to a friend Ismar Schorsch is the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The month of Adar has hardly been a herald of joy for our people this year, as it traditionally is. At best we can observe Purim in a minor key.
Past salvation offers little comfort in the midst of fresh tragedy and inconsolable grief.
The deaths of Matthew Eisenfeld and Sara Duker devastated the Seminary community beyond description. So much virtue and promise for naught. Death is an infrequent visitor in a community as young as ours. Many a daily minyan ends without a mourner's kaddish. And yet our students, stricken with grief, found refuge in the ancient prescriptions of Judaism.