(lubavitch.com)Moshe Zvi Holtzberg entered the party tent in Kfar Chabad, Israel, escorted by his two grandmothers and his nursemaid Sandra Samuel. Although the evening's emcee had warned the large audience that a three-year old might easily be crowd-shy, he smiled as he climbed up on a Victorian couch to get his first haircut.
Moshe's grandfathers Nachman Holtzberg and Shimon Rosenberg each cut a curl from Moshe's shoulder-length auburn hair, followed by a line-up of distinguished Israeli Rabbis and public figures. The three-year old boy stood quietly, accepting miniature chocolate bars from the bearded rabbis as they snipped his locks. At last, when Grandfather Holtzberg swept him into his arms, he laughed.
Conspicuously absent from the celebration were Moshe's late parents, Rivkah and Gavriel Holtzberg. Terrorists murdered them one year earlier in Mumbai, India where they were serving as outreach emissaries of the Chabad movement. Samuel rescued Moshe, extricating him from the community center attacked by the terrorists.
"Memorial ceremonies are usually thought to elevate the souls of the departed," said Moshe's great uncle, Rabbi Yitzhak Grossman who heads the Midgal Ohr network of educational Institutions, "But Rivkah and Gavriel have elevated our souls tonight."
