It’s one of those great Yiddish words that defy ordinary translation. A macher. What’s a macher? A macher is a busybody, often with a great sense of self-importance. The Jewish community has always had machers. It’s machers who get things done. It’s machers who have the political connections. It’s machers who have the pull to reach the right people at the right time.

It is said somewhere that when a talmid chacham passes, it is like the sun setting at mid-day. (See Yirmiyahu 15:9.) Rav Yaakov Ruderman zt”l, legendary founding Rosh HaYeshivah of the Ner Yisroel Rabbinical College, explained what the connection is between a premature sunset and the passing of a Torah scholar. When the sun unexpectedly sets in the middle of the day, said Rav Ruderman, people witness this unusual event and wonder with great trepidation what will be tomorrow. Will the sun rise again? How can we move on, following the departure of a Torah leader? What will the morrow bring?

It is incomprehensible. Within the space of about ten days, America has undergone two horrific mass murders. On Saturday, May 14, a white supremacist gunned down ten Black people in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Then, on Tuesday, May 24, a crazed 18-year-old Hispanic kills 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.