Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the Ashkenazi haredi world’s #2 mainstream leader, said tonight that even though the three Zionist Orthodox teenage boys kidnapped in the West Bank on June 12 were found murdered this morning, the prayers of tens of thousands of Jews for them to be safely rescued were not in vain because, in their their deaths, the murdered boys brought many Jews closer to God.
Above: Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky
Prayers For Murdered Boys’ Safe Return Were Not In Vain, Top Haredi Rabbi Insists
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the Ashkenazi haredi world’s #2 mainstream leader, said tonight that even though the three Zionist Orthodox teenage boys kidnapped in the West Bank on June 12 were found murdered this morning, the prayers of tens of thousands of Jews for them to be safely rescued were not in vain, the West Bank settler-controlled Arutz Sheva news website reported.
19-year-old Eyal Yifrah and 16-year-olds Naftali Frenkel (a dual American and Israeli citizen) and Gil-Ad Sha'ar were found murdered in shallow grave. The boys were apparently murdered shortly after being kidnapped while hitchhiking alone at night near Hebron.
Kanievsky insisted the prayers of tens of thousands of Jews to have the boys rescued alive and returned to their families were not in vain because, in their their deaths, the murdered boys brought many Jews closer to God.
“They had a great merit to spiritually strengthen thousands of Jews. It is a great merit for their souls,” Kanievsky reportedly said.
The boys’ parents had come to Kanievsky over the past three weeks seeking blessings for their sons’ safe return.
In a theological system in which God is both all powerful and omnipresent on one hand and beneficent on the other, God can do no evil. Therefore, every bad thing that takes place must have an inner, often hidden, good purpose that makes that bad thing a part of God’s beneficent master plan that is itself hidden from the world and the evil – and good – actors in it.
In that system, God must exist and can do no wrong.
And therefore the boys’ kidnapping and murders must be part of God’s plan, which is in the end good, and must serve some purpose in it.
Meanwhile, politicians across the political spectrum from the secular left wing Meretz Party to the right wing Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi Party are calling for a major military campaign against Hamas, which the Government of Israel holds responsible for the kidnappings and murders.
That move appears to have broad and deep support among all sectors of the Jewish Israeli public.
Haredi news websites and blogs are full of comments by haredim calling for Hamas to be wiped out by the IDF – an irony that seems lost on haredim, who almost all refuse to serve in the military.