We have not been abandoned. He is listening for our tap at His door

I was on the way to a shalom zachar, celebrating the arrival of a new Jew into the world, when I heard that an hour earlier, two young Israeli children and a 20 year-old just-married had been brutally run down and murdered at a Jerusalem bus stop by a terrorist who was taught from the womb that his entrée to heaven is through murdering Jews. Just one week before, seven praying Jews were murdered at their shul in Jerusalem. And as I write this, two brothers have been gunned down near Nablus — for which “triumph” celebratory candy is being distributed to Arab children. Fourteen Israelis have been killed by Arab murderers in one month.

The blending of tears and laughter, of shivah visits and simchah dancing, is a heavy brew to digest. To add to our distress, leftist Israelis are blustering over the “threat to democracy,” all stemming fundamentally from their lost power in a democratic election. These are times that try human comprehension — even without reckoning the 40,000 human beings recently killed in nearby earthquakes

Enter the theodicy issue. To those who do not believe that G-d and Divine Providence exist, all these are simply random events. In the case of terrorists, Israel can impose short-term measures: imprison them, eliminate them, blow up their homes. But how does one fight long-term against DNA hatred that views Jews as evil conquerors? In a world where there is no G-d, the road ahead is bleak, strewn with more pain and suffering. In such a world, where Eretz Yisrael is just another slice of geography on the Mediterranean, one understands why, and feels sorry for, tens of thousands of Israelis — mostly nonreligious — have fled Israel for what they consider less stressful regions (and from there, while avoiding mass shootings or dodging madmen on the subways, to complain that the chareidim — who, by the way, did not abandon Israel — are destroying Israel….)

As for those who know there is a G-d Who is in charge, certainly there are phenomena — human tragedies and nature’s disasters — that are unfathomable. But a believer will ask if somehow there is hidden in recent events a silent call from Above. With the intensification of terrorist attacks, and a rising tide of universal anti-Semitism, is there here an underlying message?

Answers do not come easily. Are we living in a period of hester panim, in fulfillment of Devarim 31:18, where G-d warns that if we turn away from Him, He will turn away from us: “I will hide my face from Thee”?

Or are we living in times of Chevlei Mashiach, the birth pangs of the ultimate Redemption, and just as a woman in labor suffers chevlei leidah as the harbinger of a new life, so also are these contemporary pangs a forerunner of the impending Redemption? Only a prophet can know.

If indeed He is deliberately concealing Himself from us, if He is temporarily giving free rein to natural forces, if for us His voice no longer thunders but barely whispers, then our task is relentlessly to seek Him out. Surely we are not left to fend for ourselves; this is after all His Land. Al mi lanu l’hisha’ein…. We have no alternative but to reach out to Him for strength, comfort, and hope (Sotah 49a). The prophet Yirmiyahu in 30:7 assures us that eis tzarah hi l’Yaakov, umimenah yivashei’a — It is a time of distress for Yaakov, but from it we shall be saved.” That is, the very troubles and distress will be the catalyst for our being saved, because inevitably these will bring us closer to Him.

We can find His Presence by elevating our prayer beyond rote lip service; by setting aside more time for Torah study, by improving our bein adam l’chaveiro, increasing our tzedakah, enhancing our chesed in deed and in thought. These are extraordinary times for Am Yisrael. Such times demand extraordinary responses.

It is far beyond any mortal ken to understand the ways of the L-rd and to comprehend the events that swirl around us. G-d told Moshe that no mortal human being can ever comprehend Him (Shemos 33:20), and He informed Yeshayahu in 55:8-9, “Lo machshevosai machshevoseichem — My thoughts are not your thoughts….” If these prophets did not fully comprehend His ways, how much more so we ordinary mortals. Remember: To understand G-d’s every act is to reduce Him to the level of a mere human being.

For one fact I am grateful: in times like these, I would not want to be an atheist. Our Creator loves us, and though for the moment He might be concealed,  “b’rega katon — with great mercy will He gather us in” (Yeshayahu 54:7), just as He did on that Purim long ago.

We have not been abandoned. He is listening for our tap at His door. And maybe more than a single light tap. Maybe a loud, insistent knock.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 952)