Memorial for the murdered Jewish people
After saying Kaddish at edge of the Danube
Sarah Stein
April 6, 2008 in Budapest
Today we went to the banks of the Danube where a memorial was installed in 2005: bronzed shoes of Jews who were taken to the edge of the Danube and shot, their bodies falling into the river. In some cases, 3 were bound togther, the middle person--man, woman, child--shot, pulling the other 2 people into the water to drown together. 15000 Jews of Budapest, their blood flowing into the Danube, their bodies flowing downriver. We said Kaddish for the dead, and then stood there a long time, silent in the face of yet another encounter with unfathomable evil.
And then tonight a couple of us went to the Hungarian national ballet company to see Swan Lake--absolutely sublime. Glorious, elating, exquisite. Some of the best of what humans do for each other.
That's what this trip is like. Incomprehensible incommensurabilities. One of the deepest teachings of mystical Judaism is about Daat--the ability to bear paradox. We have had the darkest and the lightest all in one day, again and again.
April 6, 2008 in Budapest
Today we went to the banks of the Danube where a memorial was installed in 2005: bronzed shoes of Jews who were taken to the edge of the Danube and shot, their bodies falling into the river. In some cases, 3 were bound togther, the middle person--man, woman, child--shot, pulling the other 2 people into the water to drown together. 15000 Jews of Budapest, their blood flowing into the Danube, their bodies flowing downriver. We said Kaddish for the dead, and then stood there a long time, silent in the face of yet another encounter with unfathomable evil.
And then tonight a couple of us went to the Hungarian national ballet company to see Swan Lake--absolutely sublime. Glorious, elating, exquisite. Some of the best of what humans do for each other.
That's what this trip is like. Incomprehensible incommensurabilities. One of the deepest teachings of mystical Judaism is about Daat--the ability to bear paradox. We have had the darkest and the lightest all in one day, again and again.
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