A meaningful fast

Monday’s tragic bombings in Boston, in which three people died and 176 wounded, many grievously, must remind all of us here in the United States of something our brethren in Israel have known for the last 65 years: Life is an ever-so-precious gift that can be snatched away in the blink of an evil eye.

It is not clear as of the writing of this editorial who was responsible for this gruesome, cowardly act. The nature of the two bombs that exploded within 12 seconds of each other along the final few hundred feet of the Boston Marathon’s route to Copley Square leaves no doubt that hate is at the heart of the matter.

In a little over a month, Rabbi Neal Borovitz will be stepping down as rabbi of Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge. For many years, Borovitz has been a tireless worker for the benefit of our entire community. He has unstintingly engaged in interfaith work, interstream bridge building, social causes, and communal needs, most recently as the current chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

Recalling nature’s fury naturally leads to considering nature’s bounty.

Shavuot is only 11 days away. It has several designations, including the one given by the Torah itself — the Festival of First Fruits (Chag Habikurim). Among the popular Shavuot traditions is decorating our homes and synagogues with colorful flowers, blooming plants, and leafy branches and boughs.

We predict that our state’s next senator will be a staunch supporter of the State of Israel, and a dear and close friend of Jewish communities in New Jersey and worldwide. He or she will do all that is constitutionally allowable to ease the pressure on the shoulders of day school parents locally, while increasing the pressure on the people of Iran to reverse that country’s rush to build a bomb.

With that out of the way, we can concentrate on other issues, such as how the federal government can help kickstart “the New Jersey comeback” Gov. Chris Christie touted for most of 2012, but has now all but admitted has not yet begun.

New Jersey’s unemployment rate is 8.7 percent, 1.2 percent higher than the national average and higher than those of our three neighbors — Pennsylvania (7.6 percent), New York (7.8 percent), and Connecticut (8 percent). What role, if any, the four Democrats and two Republicans vying for the seat see for themselves in restoring the state’s economy, and what role, if any, do they see for the federal government?

The death of Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg leaves a gaping hole in the national body politic — not only because it will make it even more difficult for the Democratic-controlled upper legislative chamber to actually legislate, but also because he was one of the last true gentlemen in a deliberative body that once prided itself on being the world’s most exclusive gentleman’s club.

To be sure, Lautenberg, a Democrat, was fiercely partisan when partisanship was called for, but he also understood that the Senate was about helping to make the United States better tomorrow than it was yesterday, and that this required pragmatism, not parochialism; compromise, not confrontation.