Orthodox Jews had their phones silenced, computers off during the Sabbath --- then they learned of the massacre

On Saturday evening, Tova Morrison, 26, was preparing for havdalah as all the digital lines in her household lay severed.

For Orthodox Jews, from sundown on Friday to Saturday evening, phones are silenced, computers are shut off and televisions go dark.

In Jewish tradition, the brief havdalah ceremony marks the end of the Sabbath and serves as a symbolic division between the holiness of the day and the hectic secular world.

Her family recited the havdalah prayer as the sky darkened.

In those final few moments of peace, Morrison's greatest cause for concern at that point was keeping her 14-month-old daughter away from the gently flickering candles lit as a part of the ceremony.

And then her husband, Shaul Yaakov, 27, switched on his phone and learned for the first time of the deadliest attack on Jews in the history of the United States - hours after it happened.

"He was quickly checking his phone to see if he had any work emails," Morrison, of Fairlawn, New Jersey, said. "But then he said, 'Something terrible has happened.' "

That morning, a man stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, a semiautomatic rifle in hand, and killed 11 worshipers during Sabbath services, wounding six others in a rampage that culminated in a shootout with police.

Many Orthodox Jews first saw the news on Facebook, or from family members who had switched on their televisions. Others found out at their synagogues, who had learned of the shooting through the grapevine.

It amounted to a delayed second wave of grief and mourning for Jewish communities nationwide as a connected nation followed developments since Saturday morning.

New York Times journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner wrote on Twitter: "It is unbearable to watch observant Jews come online and absorb the news."

The alleged shooter, Robert D. Bowers, 46, was charged with 29 counts of federal crimes of violence and firearms offenses, federal prosecutors said late Saturday. Bowers allegedly carried several handguns and shouted anti-Semitic statements before he opened fire, witnesses later said.

"I heard the news when I was talking with my in-laws after Shabbat," said Gabi Moskowitz, 28, who lives in New York. "Then my husband, Will, and I went online to learn more about it. It's beyond awful, and my friends from Pittsburgh just seemed to be shaken even if their families weren't affected."

Alexander Denker, a PhD candidate in Atlanta, tried to avoid using his phone. But a stream of alerts raised his concerns. "I leave my phone on as an alarm next to my bed during the Sabbath. I kept hearing it ding from the other room, so I went to take a look as to why the phone kept going off, and it was a whole stream of news alerts," he said.

"All I saw was an alert saying Suspected gunman in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that killed at least eight identified ...' and then my screen went off."

Unable to manually turn his phone on to read more, Denker had to wait until he arrived at his synagogue to learn more from fellow congregants.

"The shooting was not publicly announced until after Shabbat for those who had not already heard," Denker said. "The rabbi decided it was better for people to hear naturally but otherwise didn't want to upset or worry anyone during Shabbat."

A year of mass killings and terrorist incidents has left Morrison feeling barraged by news that even a weekly Sabbath digital cleanse cannot hold back.

"So many bad things happened this year, it's not possible to emotionally process everything the way we should," Morrison said.

After the initial shock, she focused on getting her daughter, who was too young to realize what was happening, ready for bed. She planned to recite Psalms in mourning for the dead.

"I wish it was the opposite," she said. "That there was so many good things happening that I was sick of it. I wish there was too much good."

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