How to feel God's love after October 7
How can one reconcile what happened with a loving God?
Rivkah Schwab
The pain of so many precious Jewish souls being held captive by
savage terrorists is beyond searing. How can one reconcile that with a
loving God?
Perhaps this is one analogy that can provide some solace. It helps me a bit.
God is our loving Father.
As
a parent myself, I have sometimes been told by experts that the best
way to educate adolescent children is to allow them to experience the
natural consequences of their actions. Out of love, we seek to cushion
our children from the results of their poor choices, but if we do that
forever, they will never learn.
The entire paradigm of the Israeli
security establishment imploded on Oct. 7, 2023. For years, chiefs of
staff, generals, rival prime ministers and our own convinced themselves
that tame observant Jews, whether "settlers" or haredim, posed a greater
danger to the State of Israel than our hostile neighbors and our fifth
column within.
For decades, our Mossad and Shabak spent precious
time and resources persecuting and trapping boys with peyot whose
greatest crimes were occasional graffiti, trivial property damage or
putting up forts on hilltops, while ignoring the massive stockpiling of
Iranian weapons on all our borders. While Israeli Jews regularly lost
their lives in terror attacks, the State did nothing to collect the
masses of illegal weapons in the Arab sector, let alone prosecute the
bearers.
In a play, when a gun appears in the first act, it will be fired before the curtain falls.
For
decades, our loving Father in Heaven protected us from the consequences
of our folly. We had plenty of warnings in the periodic tragic loss of
Jewish life in prior terror attacks and skirmishes with our neighbors.
Perhaps, like a loving Father, God withdrew His constant benevolent
Providence (Hashgacha) for one terrible, infamous day to allow us to
experience the agony of our myopia. If only our military and political
leadership will learn the dire lesson.
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