This response was written in the wake of the Mumbai massacre of November, 2008.
Let's say I promised my kids to take them on a trip. But there are conditions. If any of them does not behave, that child will be left behind.
And then, when we all pile into the van, there's one child missing. When asked, I only say, "Sorry, he can't come."
Now let's say nobody saw that child do anything wrong. Quite the contrary, we all saw he was helping everyone else do what they needed to do to go on the trip. But for some reason I can't explain to my kids, I have to leave him behind. And then my children say, "Dad, it's not fair! Why are you doing this? We're not going without him!"
Tell me: Should I be angry? Or should I be proud?
And if the lives of a couple who gave everything they had for others are brutally destroyed and their child orphaned, does our Father Above expect us to sit complacently and say, "Well, He must have His reasons"? Or does He await us to storm the heavens and scream, "How could You do this to Your people? Is it for this that You sent them to a foreign land? You promised us a messiah and this is what we get!?"
We have a relationship with Him. We are allowed some outrage. It's expected of us. If you have nothing to do with one another you are afraid of putting your feelings out in the open. But when you trust one another, when you are bonded together as one, when you have traveled an arduous journey together for four thousand years, when you have walked through fire and storm, defied the sword and the torch for Him, spilled your blood again and again for Him, risen to heaven in noxious smoke simply because you belong to Him, then you have the right, the need to yell out, to demand, "What's going on?! How long can you keep this up for?"
And then, only then, can we hear His voice whispering, "Trust me. I had to do this. It will be good. Very soon. Then you will understand. Then you will see."
May we see very soon, sooner than we can imagine.
LOGIN
ASK THE RABBI
