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"We are a Jewish nation that will remain standing, we will not let anyone or anything shoot us down, such terrorism will not shoot us down," said the rabbi, addressing reporters one day after the shooting. the Congregation of Chabad.
As he was recovering from an operation at the hospital, with one of his indexes removed by the shooter's rifle, he had another message to share.
Goldstein, 57, tried to comfort the bereaved and injured while he was struggling to understand what had happened at the synagogue created more than 30 years ago.
"We will not be intimidated or deterred, terror will not win," he told CNN's Brian Stelter by phone Sunday at the hospital. "And as Americans, we can not and do not want to stop at this senseless hatred of what is called anti-Semitism."
"A bit of light keeps a lot of darkness away, we need a lot of light now," he said. "And personally, I personally think that I want to make an appeal to all the Jewish people that they try to go to the synagogue.We must fill these rooms, do not run away from the synagogue, but instead, fill the synagogues.
"Let's show these terrorists, let's show these wicked and bad guys that they will not do anything to stop us from being proud Jews and being proud people defending the freedom of America" , did he declare.
After leaving the hospital, Goldstein again thought of offering words of advice to his congregation and to all who listened to him.
"The most heartbreaking sight I could have seen"
Goldstein's followers cheered as he walked slowly up to the synagogue to address reporters after he left the hospital.
Both hands were heavily bandaged. An arm was in a sling.
"We love you, rabbi," said some of them. "We are sorry that this happened at our synagogue."
When Goldstein was 24 years old, his teacher sent him from Brooklyn to open a synagogue in Poway, California, 22 km north of San Diego. It was a vacant lot, the promise of a welcoming and sacred space.
Today, a community center houses the synagogue, a kindergarten and an organization for children with special needs.
"My wife and I live all our lives, what can we do for the community, and it's inconceivable that this will happen in 2019," he told CNN earlier in the day.
Addressing reporters gathered outside the synagogue, Goldstein recalled how an explosion of gunfire broke the peace of the last day of Pesach – one of the days the most holy of the year.
He and the congregation were preparing for a memorial service, he said.
The rabbi said he heard a loud bang as he headed to the banquet hall to wash his hands.
At first, he thought that Lori Kaye, a long-time member who had helped the congregation get the loan for the building, had fallen into the hall. Maybe a table had rocked, he thought.
But then the rabbi turned around and saw a terrible sight, he said with emotion in his voice.
"Here is a young man who is holding a rifle and pointing at me, and I look at him, he was wearing sunglasses, I could not see his eyes, I could not see his soul," Goldstein said.
The rabbi said that he was frozen. He wondered where the noise was coming from? What happened to Lori?
No more gunshots broke out, Goldstein said, and he raised his hands in front of him, managing to protect himself with his fingers.
He rushed to the banquet hall for the children playing there, including his 4-year-old granddaughter. Bleeding, he shouted, "Get out, get out!"
Then the shooter stopped firing. Police say the reason for the investigation is still unclear, but the gun may have malfunctioned; the rabbi said that he believed that it was stuck.
An officer from the armed border patrol, who had recently begun to recollect at the synagogue after discovering his Jewish roots, was pursued after the shooter, said the rabbi.
"After the shooter is gone, this terrorist is gone, I turn around to assess the situation, and I enter the entrance hall and see Lori lying on the floor, unconscious," she said. he declares.
Kaye's husband tried to give her the CPR and fainted beside her. The couple's daughter shouted for her parents.
"It's the most heartbreaking sight I could have seen," Goldstein said.
The rabbi said that he felt like he was frozen in time.
"I grabbed a prayer shawl, I wrapped my arm and my fingers, it was just hanging in. I'm bleeding from everywhere. My congregation was reunited outside." here and I said "I have to do something".
So he climbed onto the chair and started talking.
Fighting darkness with light
Goldstein said that he had prayed and cried in the hours that followed the shooting.
"I pray for healing during this time, for pain and sorrow, and I ask the world to do something to add more light to fight the evil of darkness," he said.
The rabbi, charged with helping his congregation cope with their difficulties, seemed to have trouble figuring out why his life had been spared.
He was "a few inches from the target," he said.
"I experienced this horror for a reason," he said. "God did not want me to die yesterday, God wants me to continue to be his emissary and to be a partner."
Goldstein said he had listened to the words of the Rabbi and the teacher he had learned when he had grown up in Brooklyn.
Quoting his teacher, he encouraged people to perform acts of kindness at random, "to tip the scales."
"There is so much darkness in the world, but you and I have the ability to change," he said.
"I will never forget it yesterday, my missing finger will forever draw me physically, but it will remind me how vulnerable we are and how each of us can be heroic."
Sara Sidner, Dakin Andone, Madeline Holcombe and Hollie Silverman of CNN contributed to this report.
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