So what is the response that Torah wants us from such a tragedy? And by the way, the way we respond now, history is going to judge us. There’s no question about it. Just as the Midrash (rabbinic homily) says, when Reuven saved Yosef HaTzaddik, he said to himself, “If I had known that Torah was going to report my actions of saving Yosef HaTzaddik Dorei Dorot (for generations), not only would I have saved his life, I would have picked him up on my shoulders and walked to Yaakov Avinu, my father, to save him.” It’s a very interesting Midrash.
Reuven said this to himself: “If I had known my actions were being reported in the Torah for generations, and people were going to learn from my actions for generations to come, I would have acted differently,” says Reuven. I would have picked up Yosef HaTzaddik; not only would I have saved him, I would have picked him up on my shoulders and run to Yaakov. So to you over here, Rabbi. We need to face reality. Hashem put us in this situation. He chose us. Out of all the people in the world, out of all the generations, He chose our neshamot, our souls, to live at this moment. That means He wants us to be responsible and respond properly to such a situation.
And the way we react now, we have to understand, generations to come—our children when they get older, and your grandchildren—are going to say, “Oh, you were in the Simchat Torah (Rejoicing of the Torah) massacre. What did you do? How did you respond?” “I went back to work as usual; I went on vacations.” How did you respond? You have to make sure you respond properly to such a tragedy. History is reporting everything that we’re doing right now.