Tsunami (Southern Asia, 2004)

n the midst of all the horrific headlines and news that Jews worldwide anxiously scanned as the Mumbai tragedy unfolded, a name kept appearing: ZAKA. Who are they? What were they doing on the front lines of this critical mission?

We walked past shops that looked like they'd been bombed away. Smoke was rising from the burning debris. A family looking through a heap of rubble at a place they once called home...

A Chasidic prediction of the Tsunami, 60 years ago

Logically, such an apparently senseless tragedy should lead us further away from belief in the Providence and Oneness of a good, loving and omnipresent G-d. Yet it has had the opposite effect. Why?

Is it correct or proper for us to ask, were there any Americans? Jews? Israelis? Is it normal that the world took notice of the Belgians, action figures and supermodels?

We were brutally reminded that this world is still guided by powerful, unseen forces

Ten minutes after the disaster hit the news, my phone started ringing. It's been ringing ever since, 24 hours a day. Husbands looking for wives. Mothers looking for daughters. Friends looking for their traveling companions...

We cannot accept the cowardly theology that G-d is not responsible -- that anything that happens in the world that doesn't mesh with our idea of His goodness is just an amoral and indifferent act of nature...