Commentary: A Few Reminders That Charles Krauthammer's Death Brings

1. Death doesn't discriminate. In the case of Dr. Charles Krauthammer (ז׳ל), death did not care that he was a psychiatrist and a prominent commentator. It also did not care that he'd endured quite enough in his life, being (as, as I should know that, each Jew is at least once in his or her lifetime) a victim of Anti Semitism and of an accident that left him with Quadriplegia during his college days and thereafter for the rest of his 68 years.
2. Like death itself, disabilities and illnesses will not discriminate. Quadriplegia did not care that Charles Krauthammer had significant aspirations and quite a life ahead of him, and Abdominal Cancer did not spare the same Dr. Krauthammer whom Quadriplegia had already afflicted—and by the way, I as a person with Spastic-Diplegic Cerebral Palsy can at least somewhat imagine how frightening lying on a deathbed due to cancer must've been to a person whom already had paralysis below the neck and became increasingly paralyzed as cancer weakened him (and I'd be surprised if it wasn't frightening at times).
3. Death, disabilities, and illnesses don't care how old anybody is, and only Yehovah (ב׳ﬣ) knows why people like Dr. Krauthammer didn't get even 70 years, let alone 80 by any reason of any kind of strength—since physical strength isn't the only kind of strength that can help a person reach at least 70-80 years, and even as much as 120 years.
4. Only Yehovah (ב׳ﬣ) knows why He foreordained that people like Dr. Krauthammer didn't and won't get 70 years, much less why some people won't live even too long after they are born, if they're even born at all. Only Yehovah (ב׳ﬣ) also knows why He foreordained that some people would go through suffering after suffering after being born, if they weren't foreordained to be miscarried or stillborn in the first place, and many people who have gone through suffering after suffering throughout history did wish that they themselves had never been born or lived too long after their births—and Job and the prophet Jeremiah were among those people, and I'm sure that Dr. Krauthammer (who was as human as everyone else) was among those people at one or another point in his life (as I've been quite a few times in my own life given my own circumstances).
5. There unfortunately are evil people whom are rejoicing in the death of Dr. Krauthammer, as there are always evil people rejoicing in others' heartbreaking deaths. Some of these people are probably also rejoicing as Senator McCain is dying of the kind of cancer which afflicts him, and some of them have likely even rejoiced in loved ones' deaths. These kinds of people have no regard for others' lives, much less any humble regard for their own, or else they would acknowledge that they as much as anyone else will have their own moments in which they have to face Yehovah and account for how they lived their lives.
6. When the news cycle moves on from Dr. Krauthammer's death, his loved ones aren't going to move on with it. Especially given that he endured having Abdominal Cancer that metastasized and certainly exacerbated his Quadriplegia in his final days, his loved ones' mourning may well go beyond the shloshim  (30-day) and the overall avelut (year of mourning) periods in which the news cycle will appear to have left them behind.  After all, any family members, friends, and others who've lost a beloved person don't measure or schedule their grief or mourning by how much news coverage or how many days in the news cycle that their beloved one's death gets, even after the newspapers, television networks, and online news pages seem to forget that the decedent in question even existed.

Originally On Writerbeat: Just Like Going To a Normative Jewish Funeral And Saying, "Do You Know Yeshua?"...

Some are using the Daesh terror attack against Brussels to push their own agendas. One of the agendas is Muslimophobia*. Another is Trumpism. Still another is blaming the EU for allowing in Middle Eastern refugees—aka, victim shaming—and still another is xenophobia and racism**.

Now is the time to simply comfort, console, grieve with, and support the Belgians—just like my role at a Normative (i.e., Non-Messianic) Jewish funeral would be to comfort fellow mourners among Tzion v'Yerushalayim, not ask "Do you know Yeshua?" or "Did [the decedent] know Yeshua?" or "Since [the decedent] died without knowing Yeshua, [he or she] is not in Heaven. Would you like to know how to stay out of Hell and avoid [the decedent]'s fate?"

Those who incite Muslimophobia, use Belgium's 9/11 to promote Donald Trump, or engage in shaming the Belgians and stereotyping are no better than, e.g., Jesus For Jesus under opportunistic and Holocaust-exploiting David Brickner or people whom go onto the comments section of "Times of Israel" articles about murder victims to proselytize—whom would similar to me were I to start giving the whole "Let me tell you about Yeshua" schpiel at, e.g., an Orthodox Jewish funeral (which is akin to what has happened in "Times of Israel" comments sections, with one incident in which a friend of a decedent's family friend had to get involved and ask people to refrain from proselytizing).

*Note that I did not say "Islamophobia". I grant that moderate Muslims are really Reform/Liberal/secular Mohammedans—and Jews in Poland were called "Mosaics", similarly and by the way; so, with all due respect, get over your political correctness. By the way, you could call Daesh, Al Qadea, etc. Orthodox Mohammedans or Ultra-Orthodox Mohammedans, since Mohammed was a violent man. By alienating Reform/Liberal/Secular Mohammedans ("moderate Muslims") are you going to help fight against Orthodox Mohammedism and Ultra-Orthodox Mohammedism?

**Stereotyping all Middle Eastern refugees as Mohammedans is wrong and may even be Anti Semitic in some cases, though you can be my guest if you want to risk labeling Jadid al-Islam (Mizrahi Anusim) and other Non Mohammedans, including Egyptian Jews and gentile Coptic Christians.

I Dedicate This To the Foczkos, Etc. Who Were Never Properly Mourned, And...

That includes those of us who went through becoming Anusim and going through the Shoah (such as little Joszef Foczko of blessed memory). "El Male Rachamim" is a prayer that is recited in memory of the deceased in the Ashkenazi Jewish community. Shlomo Katz HaKohen sang this version.

Sitting Shiva Isn't Always About Physical Death

I know this because I'm well read enough and have delved enough into my own family history. Shiva can be sat when:

1. A child or other relatives intermarries (This happened to the late Ruth McBride Jordan, nee Rachel Deborah Shilsky [Ruchel Dwajra Zylska] when she was even just in a relationship with Dennis McBride.). This normally doesn't happen if a child marries solely a "shvartze"--as the Yiddish pejorative was thrown about back then. This happens if a child marries any gentile who doesn't convert or is not accepted for conversion into Judaism.
2. A child or other relative converts out of particularly Non-Messianic Judaism into--e.g.--Roman Catholicism (or other so-called "denominations of Messianic Judaism [Christianity]"), even if they remain Non Messianic and are merely Anusim. Sometimes, shiva isn't even sat and there's a rowdy hatefest where the convert's "death" or death is celebrated (See "Evel Rabbati", which takes work to find but is worth fighting. As the Anti Semites like to tripe on about and the Karaites note, this is what the P'rushiyin do not want you to know.). The P'rushiyin particularly hated Jesus, and revisionists like to pretend that another Yeshua is mentioned, but all one has to do is look at Bava Metzi'a 59b and the New Testament to get the idea pretty quickly.
3. A child or other relative acts so despicably that the circumstances play out as if he or she is dead, would rather be dead, or would be better off as such.
4. A child or other relative is in circumstances in he or she is dead, would rather be dead, or would be better off as such. For example, a child who is inevitably going to die of terminal cancer and not be miraculously healed may have shiva sat for him ot her early on.

Shiva can always be reversed for the living. For example, Ruth McBride Jordan did get back in touch with one of her cousins who she hadn't seen in years and who was in California. Even relatives who had sat shiva for her (viz. her aunts Mary and Bernadette) had contact with her, even though that contact was telling her that they sat shiva for her and she was to stay out of their lives (which Mary did)--as well as slamming the door in her face when she reached out to them for help (which Bernadette did).

In my own family's case, I have been in touch with Rusnak relatives before. Also, the Czerneckis did write to us once to ask for the deed to be changed. Shiva will also be reversed for Aunt Mary if she ever reaches out to me again (See #3 to give you an idea of what she did. All that I'll say is that, that took hutzpah to cut me off without at least telling me why she would--at least Ruth McBride Jordan's aunt Mary told her that she cut her off and gave her a hint as to why she did.).

Shiva cannot be reversed for the dead (unless they of course miraculously rise again).