Emor - Forethoughts And Afterthoughts

Emor

This is dedicated in loving memory of my father R? Yosef Ben Zelig of blessed memory who passed away this past Friday.

I am in a period of personal mourning. We all are in a period of mourning for many who were lost.

I would like to share some observations and thoughts on our recent loss of more than six-million martyrs who were murdered because they were Jewish.

Some survivors became stronger from it. Others left the fold.

Where was G-D? Why didn?t it matter whether you were righteous or not?

Our souls yearn for meaning.

G-D is just. His loving-kindness is infinite.

Our lives have purpose. Our Creator who actively manages the affairs of Mankind down to the minutest detail of each person is infinitely aware and capable.

He has an agenda. He set goals for us. We live within a structure that He designed to match the agenda and goals. He revealed His will and plans one time to us all some thirty-three centuries ago. It is up to us to preserve it, to transmit it to the next generation without any corruption.

The Torah has structure. Nature has structure. His Management has structure. The structures are so complicated, so huge. We are taught that they are also interrelated in a manner that is too profound for our intellect to fully grasp.

We are taught that one attribute of Management is correspondence. For example, if we forgive others than G-D will be more forgiving towards us. And if we give more attention and significance to G-D?s will then He will take what we want more into consideration when He is making decisions.

Structure requires tough decisions.

Say you have plenty of money and you have a son. You want him to be well off but also financially responsible. You give him some money and tell him to manage it, to live within his means. He blows his bank account. You rescue him and deposit more money into his account. He blows it again. You rescue him again, maybe. But you know that if you keep on doing this then you will ruin him with your kindness and care. So sometimes you need to let him fall, even though it?s hard, even though he gets hurt.

People far greater than me have offered to provide some answers to what happened last century. I know of two schools of thought, both based on history and on traditional Jewish thought.

One school of thought is that we deserved it because a huge percentage of us were running away from Judaism and authentic Jewish practice. And this was happening in an unprecedented manner.

This notion evoked outrage in some circles.

We have no prophets of G-D to either confirm or disprove this theory.

The other school of thought that I know of is that the Jewish people must undergo stress for refinement, either though means that they choose or through means that are painfully imposed. We were stressed and refined some thirty-three centuries ago and became worthy of the Exodus and of receiving the Torah. By the Messianic period we will understand the process and how it was applied throughout our sometimes very painful history to make us even greater. Until then we have no solid answers.

My dad, of blessed memory, fought some tough battles with infections towards the end of his 97 years.

We all must fight infection. In fact, we are constantly at risk from numerous hostile and microscopic invaders that can and do kill. Our defenses must be strong and on constant alert to remain alive.

The scriptures talk about G-D ?hiding his face? when we become unworthy.

We are also taught that the Jewish people are continually at risk of being destroyed by enemies, for we represent G-D?s sovereignty. It is only with G-D?s continual protection that we have been able to survive Jewish history to date.

The tragedies that we suffer come from our enemies. They are able to hurt us only because G-D ?hides his face.? That is, He stops rescuing us, or reduces the intensity of His protection.

This is somewhat like becoming overcome by infection, where some parts of the body remain healthy and strong. Only, the weaker parts or the overall system are unable to cope with destructive organisms and the person gets hurt.

Unlike infection, we will never die for Torah teaches that G-D will never hide his face enough to allow the Jewish people to be completely destroyed.

Besides running away from the Torah, the period leading up to the holocaust is marked by a lack of harmony. There was much internal strife and divisiveness.

Applying correspondence, as we ran away from G-D, so did He move away from us and our immunity was down. He did not rescue us and we were decimated by enemies.

And we could have rescued ourselves had we respected each other more, for when one person is weak in one area, another is strong and can provide mentorship. But we were not in a state that allowed us to listen to each other.

I suggest that the degree of our running away from G-D and our divisiveness significantly contributed to allow the unprecedented tragedy to occur.

Thank G-D, today many of us are running back and harmony appears to be better. It?s not great but it?s better.

I suspect that the redemption we yearn for would have occurred already if weren?t for slanted speech that we are sometimes guilty of. And on the macro level, I suspect that significant interference is being generated from journalism that vilifies adherents of the Torah for commercial gain or to manipulate for the personal gains and agendas of individuals.

But the redemption will occur some day, may it happen quickly. And we are taught that the righteous will come back to life to witness it. ?Death is swallowed up forever. And G-D All-mighty will erase the tears from every face.? ========================= Courtesy of JewishAmerica http://www.JewishAmerica.com