AP
Photos: Yeshiva World News
Jerusalem – Seven Jewish siblings who were killed in a devastating New York house fire over the weekend were being laid to rest Monday after being flown to Israel for burial.
Dozens of mourners, including the chief rabbi of Israel, attended the emotional service, which was repeatedly interrupted by anguished cries.
“Why seven?” Seven beautiful lilies,” their father, Gabriel Sasson, cried out during a eulogy. “So pure. So pure.”
The bodies of the Sassoon siblings, ages 5 to 16, were flown to Israel overnight from New York and whisked away to Jerusalem in a convoy escorted by police.
The bodies, wrapped in shrouds, were displayed on stretchers for a memorial service in a room crowded with dozens of mourners. After the service, they were to be buried at Jerusalem’s main cemetery.
David Lau, Israel’s chief rabbi for Ashkenazi — or European — Jews, described the fire as an unspeakable tragedy and urged the family to remain strong. “Each one is a flower in God’s garden,” he said.
The fire has shattered the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. Investigators believe it was caused when a hot plate, left on for the Jewish Sabbath, malfunctioned, setting off flames that incinerated the stairs of their home, trapping the children in their second-floor bedrooms as they slept.
The blaze killed three girls and four boys. Both the mother and a daughter — Gayle Sassoon and 14-year-old Siporah Sassoon — remain in critical condition.
The tragedy had some reconsidering the practice of keeping hot plates on for the Sabbath, a common modern method of obeying tradition prohibiting the use of fire on the holy day.
Israeli media have said the family lived in Jerusalem before moving to New York two years ago.
Alon Edri, who identified himself as a rabbi and relative of the family, said it was significant for the religious family to be buried in the Holy Land.
“We believe that being buried in Israel is important because all of your sins are then absolved,” he said.
i feel with the grandmother pain avrom schmelczer from willymsubrg
Please everyone watch the videos here
Watch them each twice
And cry, and let your body tremble with ache
This might bring Moshiach
It is communal pain
Ahavas yisrael combined with hope and prayer brings Moshiach!
I hate golus
The video made me burst into tears. 7 beutiful children gone. We need Moshiach NOW!
What heart ache, what to say? Only to bow our heads and keep the family close in thoughts and prayers. Baruch HaShem for our Faith! Without it I can not imagine!
Hashem we are your children! Have pity on us as a father to his children! Bring Moshiach NOW! Bila Hamaves Lanetzach! Bring us to the Geulah Hashlishis Mamosh Kipshuto! V’Hakitzu V’ranenu Shochnei Afar V’heim Besochum!
The secular press is having a field day with ‘the Jewish Sabbath’ right now. Let’s keep things in perspective: Hot plates are a fact of life in all neighborhoods, being sold in all home appliance companies Jewish or not, and are also left on for reasons other than ‘the Jewish Sabbath’. When hot plates catch fire, mentioning it in and of itself as a religious ritual is false. The not so subtle negative slant being placed on ‘the Sabbath’ should be seen for what it is, the usual bias.
What can we DO to help them, to comfort them??
We cannot let this just go by…
MOSHIACH NOW
my goodness where is Moshaich already we need it
PLEASE G-D, SEND US MOSCHIACH NOW!!!
PLEASE HAShEM!!!! ENUF IS ENUF!!!!!! We need moshiach this second!!!!!
crying….this is too much…
himmel geshrei! let’s storm the heavens!