This past Friday Jews all over the world from Teaneck to Tel Aviv and from Passaic to Paris did what Jews do every Erev Shabbos: they went shopping for Shabbos food.
Whether you go to Kosher Konnection or Rami Levi or KRM or Hypercacher (also spelled Hyper Cacher or HyperCacher; translated as "Super Kosher" it is a chain of kosher supermarkets in France and Italy) (Wikipedia); the routine is the same all over the world.
You see men on their cell phones listening attentively to their wives who are patiently explaining to them what are chicken cutlets and which type of potatoes are tasty in the Chulent.
You see little children kvetching and begging their mothers to buy more and more candy for ‘Shabbos Party’.
You see elderly gentlemen purchasing two Challah rolls for a lonely Shalosh Shiddush and twelve year old girls who have borrowed their mother’s cell phones as they finally have the opportunity to be ‘mommy-like’ and do the shopping for the family.
And you have the last minute shoppers who are ‘just chapping’ one or two quick items such as potato salad or Hummus.
The common denominator among all of these shoppers, irrespective if they were in Parsippany or in Portland or even in Paris was that they felt safe.
They could not imagine that shopping for Shabbos food could be life threatening.
Everything changed this past Friday.
Four shoppers never returned home this past Erev Shabbos.
They never returned to their families to share a much deserved Shabbos respite.
They would never return to their families.
Tomorrow in the holy city of Yerushalayim they will arrive at their final resting place.
Four holy Jews who were killed for no other reason than they were identifiably Jewish by being careful to observe Kashrus by openly shopping in a kosher supermarket will never return home.
“In a conversation with French news station BFM TV, [the killer] Amedy Coulibaly said that he had selected the Hypercacher supermarket for his attack "because it was Jewish" (ibid.).
Four Jews went shopping last Erev Shabbos and were murdered in cold blood for being Jewish.
They never drew cartoons which were offensive to Islamists.
They were not citizens of Israel and they were not soldiers in any army.
They were ‘just’ Jews and they were killed because they were Jews.
This Friday when you go shopping think about the four Kedoshim who never arrived home last week because they were Jewish.
Think about them and appreciate what you have today; who knows what tomorrow will bring?
