The POSTman Knocks Twice: A time to keep silent

It is the worst time to make decisions. Anger bubbles up. Anger takes over. Now is not the time to make fateful decisions.

Candles placed next to a picture of three Israeli teenagers who were abducted and killed, in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square June 30, 2014. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Candles placed next to a picture of three Israeli teenagers who were abducted and killed, in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square June 30, 2014.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The worst has happened.
It is the worst time to make decisions.
These words are written the day after the three families and the Jewish people were plunged into mourning.
Anger bubbles up. Anger takes over.
Now is not the time to make fateful decisions. Nor is it the time to analyze the efforts and errors of the government.
Now is the time to bite our lips.
“There is a time to keep silent.”
There is also a “time to speak.”
The ugly race of cabinet ministers and other politicians, each outdoing the other in stridency, racing to the media with off-the-cuff calls for revenge and killing, simplistic chants appealing to the lowest common denominator, prepackaged propaganda spewed with their condolences – frankly made me physically sick.
I wept for the families, for their children, the innocent students.
With Jeremiah, “My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns.”
Now for a moment I speak.
Please, ministers, politicians, “leaders.”
For Heaven’s sake. Shut up! Now is the time to keep silent.