Va'era - 1/20/2012
This week Bnai Torah lost a long time member in a tragic car accident. Moments like this leave us speechless with a thousand questions in our minds. Why? Why her? Why now? Why in such a tragic manner? Why so suddenly? And the worst part is that tragedies leave us with no good answers. It is what it is.
It is moments like this where we either walk away from it all - belief in a higher power, faith, good will, or we dig down deep within our personal beliefs and spirituality to remind ourselves of the good in our lives and begin the healing process, asking God to give us strength to accept the unpredictability of life.
After the service a friend in his eighties remarked “The suddenness of this reminds me of how short life truly is.”
I was struck silent by the poignancy of the statement.
The Book of Job describes all the trials Job experiences, a test to see if his faith in God will waiver even a little in the face of great tragedy and suffering. While many may claim this to be a fable, This week today reminds us how much reality goes into our ancient fables. When we are introduced to Job he is said to be “blameless and upright, he feared God and shunned evil.” Then the Adversary approaches God. God brags about how great Job is in his faith, so much so that the Adversary makes a bet that if God stopped raining blessings down upon Job that Job would renounce his faith in God. Now here is where one should find anger in our creator. God takes the bet. God offers up Job as the great example of a human being who shows gratitude in his great prosperity and humility in acknowledging God’s assistance in his success. God believes Job’s faith to be unshakable. God removes all Job’s blessings to prove the strength of Job’s faith. In a single day Job loses all his children and all his worldly possessions. He begins the period of mourning but maintains his faith. In the next chapter the adversary once again question’s Job’s faith since he still as his health and God allows Job to be greatly afflicted with sores from head to toe.
For the next 35 chapters a discourse occurs between Job and his three closest friends who try to get him to renounce his faith in God. Job’s faith holds up even after God chastises him for thinking he could begin to understand the vastness of God. God rewards Job’s faith by doubling his blessings, allowing him to begin a second family, sire ten more children and amass twice as much wealth as before.
It would be nice if we could say the story of Job is just a fable to teach us about the value of the blessings in our lives: family, friends, health and prosperity. It would be nice if the reality of Job could never happen to a single person on a single day. But as Jews, as witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust, as the conscience of the world, we know all too well that every blessing can be taken from a single person on a single day and be turned into ashes. We’ve watched it being done, we’ve read about it, we’ve heard first person accounts of individuals’ experiences having everything they held dear destroyed before their eyes. While men committed this tragedy against mankind the question for many is “where was God for those who perished and while I suffered?” Others insist “Only my faith gave me strength to survive and tell my story.”
First hand in the last sixty years alone we have example after example of modern day Jobs rising from their afflictions, suffering and loss to start new families and create even greater wealth for themselves.
Where is God in our afflictions? Where is God in our blessings?
Death shakes us all to our core. It forces us to look at our lives, our priorities, our own mortality. A tragic death forces us to try and understand how much we take for granted. It forces us to weigh the true value of each moment of each day. Did we say I love you to our children and spouse enough today? Did we cause a stupid argument or stay angry even after a loved one apologized for hurting our feelings? Did we rush to pursue bad causes while ignoring the good causes waiting patiently for our attention? Did we give thanks for simply being alive, healthy and living in a nation filled with plenty?
Our lives are meant to be filled with two things. Love and gratitude. Only if we fill our lives with love and gratitude do we have a true understanding what we’ve lost when we fall ill, suffer complications in work, marriage, friendship, or lose a loved one to age, illness or tragedy.
Ecclesiastes says it best:
“A season is set for everything; a time for every experience under heaven:
A time for being born and a time for dying
A time for weeping and a time for laughing
A time for wailing and a time for dancing
A time for seeking and a time for losing
A time for silence and a time for speaking”
This week was a time for dying, losing, weeping, wailing, speaking and silence. It was also a time for laughing at old memories and good stories told well. I time to remember days of dancing and the seeking of good friends. A time to remember the birth of all the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and friendships over the last 80+ years.
While death can be tragic, it is the love and gratitude filling a life that defines the true worth of a person. The love and gratitude that people fill our lives with provides the strength that carries us through the weight of death, suffering and loss.
There are no true answers to the questions a tragic death brings to our lips. The only answer is to be grateful to be alive while wiping tears from the faces of those who mourn and bring comfort to those whose questions remain unanswered.
Each morning as Jews we say:
Modeh anee lifanecha melech chai vikayam, she-he-chezarta bee nishmatee b'chemla, raba emunatecha.
I offer thanks to You, living and eternal God, for You have restored my soul within me; Your faithfulness is great.
May each day be a reminder of how fortunate we are to be alive. May we remember to give thanks for all things large and small that bless our lives and enrich our existence.
May we shower our husbands, wives, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, family and friends with unconditional love and praise, letting them forever know how much they touch our lives.
May we give thanks to God for creating our universe, filling it with all those we love and hold dear, and allowing us to reach this season. May our lives be eternally filled with infinite love and gratitude
kayin yehee ratzon - may this be God’s will