B'Mikreh, G-d's Planning

I'm trying to get myself to calm down. A news item has gotten me all upset again. It says:
MK Schneller: Destruction of Israeli Towns Will be “Measured and Balanced” 18:54 May 14, '06 / 16 Iyar 5766


(IsraelNN.com) MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) said the government’s proposal to implement the convergence plan, to dismantle and destroy Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, will be implemented in “a very measured and balanced way.”

That's an oxymoron if there ever was! How can one's exile, the destruction of one's home, ripping bodies from graves be " balanced?" Just a couple of hours ago a new "body" was buried in our local cemetery. It was the final trip for the man who knew our roads better than anyone else. Is Schneller going to come and dig him out?

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I had planned on writing a very special and fitting tribute to one of the Jewish People's modern pioneers, Muli Hofbauer, ZaTz"L, and yes, I consider him to have had been a Tzaddik, a very righteous man.

One doesn't have to wear the "costume" and cloister oneself in a Beit Medrash, Study Hall, to be a tzaddik. A true tzaddik lives a pure life, keeping the mitzvot (commandments), between Man and G-d and Man and Man. A tzaddik is honest and reliable, devoted to family and friends. A tzaddik takes on jobs that may not always be popular and does them joyfully and consienciously. A tzaddik is as one of my children described Muli, "a nice man."

Muli (Shmuel Alexander) and his wife, Chana, were founding members of Shiloh. Yes, Shmuel and Chana, of course, just like the Biblical Shiloh, there had to be a Shmuel and Chana here from the start. Chana was the first nursery school teacher, and Muli gave up his engineering job to be a driver. As Rav Elchanan reminded us: "Muli was our connection with Jerusalem. Whatever someone needed, Muli delivered it."

It wasn't the traveling, the roads or terrorists who killed Muli, it was cancer. Davka, less than a week ago, another Chana was widowed, when her husband was killed in a car crash. I visited that Chana this morning, and she talked of how she's certain that her husband and the friend who was killed with him are trying to save us all from their new position in Olam HaBa, the Next World.

For all of us in Shiloh, it's so hard to imagine a Shiloh without Muli. At the funeral, one of the neighbors told us how he and Chana were comforted after her brother was killed in an accideSomeoneomone had told them that "B'Mikreh," by chance, really means "rak m'Hashem," "only from G-d." Nothing is without reason.

Then I remembered when I was their son's teacher, and I really needed to talk to them about something, but I don't like calling parents, so I hadn't. Then one day, waiting for a ride to work, who should come by but Muli. I got in, and I was the only passenger, so I knew that I had to report, which I wouldn't have done if there had been others. Later in the day, their son walked into the classroom:
"Why did you speak to my father?"
"I had no choice," I replied. "G-d set it up. He arranged the ride."

Why now, so quickly, did Muli die? G-d has his reasons, I'm sure. And we do need all the help we can get from the Tzaddikim in Olam HaBa.

In the meantime, we have plenty to do down here in This World. G-d willing , Muli won't be reinterred and we won't be exiled from our beloved home, Shiloh.