I believe G-d created the universe.
Nothing else explains that first spark of life. Not the Big Bang theory or quantum physics or black holes. Science has the power to reveal the truth, but some mysteries are so unfathomable, so profound as to be unknowable.
Upon creating the universe, the G-d I believe in said, “Let there be light”—hoping, perhaps expecting that we would cherish and protect the land and sea, the plants and animals, the exquisite beauty of our Earth. Our shared humanity. The miracle of birth. The sunrise that never ceases to inspire awe. Our capacity for love.
Creation was the greatest of gifts and certainly G-d intended for us to take our obligation seriously.
The Jewish Tradition of Tikkun Olam
In the Jewish tradition, tikkun olam, or repairing the world, teaches that G-d “contracted the divine self to make space for creation.” In doing so, the divine vessels shattered. Our lifelong task is to collect those broken shards and repair the vessels. Unfortunately, we are failing. Miserably.
If G-d exists, surely we are a disappointment. I wouldn’t fault G-d for being angry, sad, shaken. Perhaps even remorseful. What parent can watch an errant, suffering child without feeling responsible?
Israel, Gaza and Holding Two Truths
Because I am Jewish, my friends ask me what I think about Israel. I tell them about the Israel of my youth. I tell them about buying Israel bonds to honor a newborn baby, as a bar mitzvah or graduation gift. I tell them about the miracle and the sense of safety many Jews feel in having a homeland. I first visited Israel with my family when I was twelve years old. As a sophomore in college, I worked on a kibbutz, lived in Jerusalem for a few months in my late twenties, floated in the Dead Sea, snorkled in Eilat, prayed at the Wailing Wall, wandered the streets of Safed, stood high up in the Golan Heights.
Did you know that two-thirds of all Jews in Europe were exterminated during the Holocaust?
The story of Jewish persecution is in our blood. As children, we were steeped in the Biblical stories of Esther and the exile to Babylonia. Expulsion during the Crusades. Pogroms in Russia and Poland. The Holocaust. Many of my friends can tell stories about grandparents, no more than thirteen years old making their way alone to New York and Chicago, to Providence, Rhode Island to escape persecution. My own family settled in Wilmington, North Carolina in the late 1800’s. (Of course, this is not solely a Jewish story of immigration). Given our history of persecution, I believe that the future of my people depends upon a healthy thriving Israel.
So for me and for many of my generation of Jews, Israel is a heroic story. It is a story of hope (The Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, means hope.) and an end to thousands of years of victimization.
Then I look at the images coming from Gaza and I remind myself that more than one thing can be true.
In Gaza, innocent children are dying of starvation. Yes, it is complicated and there is no denying that the slaughter of October 7th was horrific. Sometimes it is hard to know who the victims are. But we do know when violence has crossed the line. When there is no excuse, no justification, no reasonable defense.
Even when a solution eludes us, we can know it is time to pause. To acknowledge our failings. To recommit. To do whatever we can to repair the broken vessels.
I am heartbroken and I expect more from Israel. We, who are to be a light unto the nations (Isaiah). We, who are called upon to repair the broken vessels. The only democracy in the Middle East, Israel has made significant contributions to research, technology, medicine, agriculture. These are stunning achievements.
How is it, given our own history of persecution, that we can inflict that kind of suffering upon innocent women and children in Gaza?
Where Are You G-d?
Lately I have been searching the heavens, praying for an answer. Where are you, G-d? Is it too much to ask that You intercede on our behalf? That You save us from ourselves? That You show us the way before it is too late?
But the G-d of creation is not coming back. And the most important thing we can do now is to understand the other. To avoid taking sides. To pray that our best selves emerge out of our differences.
Because tikkun olam, the work of repairing the world, of fostering peace, of compassion and love, falls to each of us.
I invite you to read related blogs including When the Best I Can Do is Pray and Thin Places: The Possibility of Transformation. And my novel, Thin Places, and Cross Body Lead that are available locally at Volumes of Pleasure in Los Osos and wherever paperbacks and ebooks are sold.
#WhereIsGod #FaithInCrisis #TikkunOlam #JewishVoices #IsraelAndGaza #RepairTheWorld #MiddleEastConflict #JewishFaith #HolocaustHistory #HumanityFirst #PeaceBuilding #InterfaithDialogue #SpiritualReflections
Thank you, Ellie. With four grandchildren living in Israel, my thoughts constantly turn to the people whose lives have been turned upside down — in Israel, in Gaza, in the West Bank, etc. Seems an impossible conundrum and my thoughts twist and turn like a kite caught in the breeze. Solutions seem so elusive. Prayer might be our best option.
Where is God? Ask: where are the people with God? Where are the believers, the practitioners? Where are the zealots? God inspires, people act on that inspiration.
Or don’t.
I felt your genuine longing in this post Elle. Thank you for taking “pen to paper” to write this. There must be a way out of this hell. I am reminded of the scene from the Movie Gandhi where a manic, distraught man breaks into Gandhi’s room and admits that he killed a child from the “opposing side “. The man is almost mad, haunted by his actions and cannot find peace. Gandhi advises him to find an orphan street child from the opposing side and raise him as his own only in the the child’s native religion and culture . He advises that is the only way to find peace. Somehow this translates to me that individual acts of connection and humanity ultimately could resolve the pain and damage but the governments would need toget out of the way.