Rant #2,251: Never Forget

Yes, I really did oversleep really badly this morning.

I am tired, but I didn't realize that I was this tired!

The spooks on Halloween must have gotten me!

Anyway ...

More from me about the synagogue massacre ...

This horrendous event hit me over the head when I first heard about it, and now that it has been a couple of days separated from that terrible situation, I am still reeling from it.

I have not been a member of a synagogue for the past nine years. I have not set foot in a synagogue during that period, too.

That simply means that I have not gone to a shul, a place where Jews can pray in peace. It doesn't mean that I have given up my Judaism.

There are several reasons why my family did not rejoin our shul, one of which is that it merged with another somewhat nearby synagogue, and the new synagogue was extremely nasty to my family when my son was ready to be bar mitzvahed. I know that I have discussed this in past Rants, so I won't go into it here, but it left a stain on me that I cannot remove so quickly.

But my Judaism has never left me, nor will it ever leave me. It is not only part of who I am, it IS who I am.

And that is why this horrific incident hit me to the core.

Churches and synagogues are places of worship, refuges from our homes and workplaces and places that we can pray to our chosen religion and feel safe doing it.

With this terrible event, coupled with the equally terrible event of a few years ago in a southern church, places of worship simply cannot leave their doors unattended and open anymore to welcome in whoever might want to pray and worship like they would like to do.

People with severe mental problems, and ready access to guns, have closed the openness we once felt in the solitude of our chosen religious place of worship.

Unfortunately, these houses of worship must be treated like we are now handling schools, and places where large groups of people can congregate, like stadiums and arenas and some move theaters.

Those places have metal detectors, armed guards at the doors, and people are scrutinized up and down when they arrive at these places to enjoy themselves.

It has become a way of life, and few complain.

I am not debating whether armed guards at synagogue doors would have prevented the latest tragedy, but it appears that that is the direction we might be going in, and houses of worship certainly have to investigate this type of protection after this latest tragedy.

Just this past Sunday, when my son and I attended that WWE event that I told you about yesterday, we had to empty our pockets and pass through a metal detector to get in. Sure, it is a pain in the butt doing this, but I don't hear anyone complaining anymore about doing it.

I am not comparing a WWE event to attending a religious service, but it is coming to the point where the scrutiny at the door is probably going to one day be the same, or very similar, whether entering an arena or a church or a synagogue.

And you know what? That is a shame, a crime in itself.