Posted on 04/25/2002 11:44:01 AM PDT by Alouette
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| Seven-year-old Ari Loeb, from Brooklyn, prays during a massive prayer gathering in New York Sunday, April, 21, 2002. The prayer was organized by a group of Orthodox Jewish organizations as a response to the crisis in Israel and the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment around the world. (AP Photo/David Karp) | Jewish Orthodox women pray during a massive prayer gathering in New York Sunday, April, 21, 2002. The prayer was organized by a group of Orthodox Jewish organizations as a response to the crisis in Israel and the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment around the world. (AP Photo/David Karp) |
Home and Family 50,000 Jews Gather To Daven In Lower Manhattan by Yated Ne'eman Staff
Under leaden skies heavy with the promise of rain, more than 50,000 Jews from across the Orthodox spectrum gathered in Lower Manhattan this Sunday to recite Tehillim and pray for the safety and security of Jews in Israel, where violence against innocent men, women and children has been perpetrated with sickening regularity, as well as in other countries where antisemitic attacks on Jewish citizens and institutions have markedly increased.
The rain held off, though, as the streets began to fill, the seemingly endless column of mispalelim fanning out from the intersection of Water Street and Hanover Plaza, the men's section -- a sea of black hats, knitted yarmulkes and baseball caps -- running north almost to the Brooklyn Bridge, the women's section running several blocks south to the Battery. It held off as the designated baal tefilloh, Rabbi Zyshe Heshel, stepped up to the bimah at 2:45 to begin the Mincha service, held off through the repeated, thunderous chants of "Omen" and "Yehei Shmei Rabbo." Throughout the responsive recitation of eight chapters of Tehillim, the rain held off.
Yet the weather was apparently the last thing on the minds of participants.
"It's a tremendous zchus just to be here," said one man, an attorney from Brooklyn. "It feels so good being part of this huge gathering, demonstrating support for our fellow Jews in the way Jews have always been taught to show support."
"Coming together to daven in these kinds of numbers is the ultimate expression of solidarity," was the way a woman in the crowd put it. According to the event's organizers, the gathering indeed represented one of the largest unified recitations of Tehillim in modern history. In addition to the Manhattan assembly, which drew men, women and children from throughout the Greater New York area, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Maryland, parallel programs -- many with live-telephone hookups to the proceedings in New York -- were held in at least 35 other cities including Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Boca Raton, FL; Chicago, IL; Cincinnati, OH; Detroit, MI; Edmonton, ONT; Lakewood, NJ; Memphis, TN; Montreal, QUE; Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR; Scranton, MA; and Silver Spring, MD.
For yet another participant, the kiddush Hashem created by the dignified and respectful conduct of the massive crowd was one of the most awe-inspiring aspects of the assembly. "You have so many people in one place and practically the only sounds you hear are the sounds of tefilloh. That kind of decorum has to make a positive impression."
That impression was only reinforced during the event's final moments when, after the roar of thousands of voices raised in reciting "Hashem Hu HoElokim" -- the final words of the kabolas ohl malchus Shomayim that ends Ne'ila on Yom Kippur -- died down, the crowd slowly and quietly dispersed.
And then, a soft rain began to fall.
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I pray we send this message to all terrorists:
To G-D; Eternal Creator and Ruler of the Universe.
In Messianic times the original pronunciation of the 4 letters will be restored.
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