There are times in life when we question the existence of G-d. Where is He? If it is true that G-d exists, then how can He allow atrocities to happen? Many people have been asking this question over the last two weeks; Jews in Israel especially are struggling with this question.
We all know that the Israeli government is made up of human beings and as much as we are surprised by their shortfall of military intelligence, we know that everyone can make mistakes, but G-d? How can He allow such a horrific attack on the Jewish people to happen?
Recently a video was trending of a survivor, a heroic man who fought off the terrorists. In it he says how difficult it is for him to pray to G-d. “How can I put on tefillin in the morning and pray to G-d,” he asks, after all that he went through?
To appreciate the answer that he gave, let us detour to this week’s Torah portion, Noach. At the conclusion of the portion, after we learn about the flood and the destruction of mankind, we see how Noach’s children rebuilt the world. Finally cities start to be formed. There is one group of people that settle in Shinar and they decide to build a city there. A town center, with a huge tower in the middle. The Torah tells us that G-d got angry and destroyed the city. Why did G-d get angry with them? What is wrong with building a city, seemingly a nice idea. The Torah even compliments them on how they all spoke one language, as a sign of unity. What was their big mistake?
In the Torah’s words: “They wanted to make for themselves a name.” It was about them. They were not there to make society better, to make humankind better. They were selfish people.
The Torah is teaching us a profound lesson here. Often, human nature gets in the way and we become self-centered. Instead of seeing the big picture, we see the picture through our eyes only. Our emotions get the better of us. This myopia had to be destroyed.
Back to our hero.
He was struggling with his tefillin. He wanted to put them on but couldn’t get himself to do so. He picked up a book that contained letters by the Lubavitch Rebbe and he found an inspiring letter. Here is what it said: “Don’t view yourself as yourself, as the person who is struggling, as the person who has all these legitimate questions. View yourself as a Jew. Without any additions. No titles. No name. Just a simple Jew. Pure of any outside thoughts. No hero. No ego. Just you.”
Now, this letter was not written to our hero, the man who just went through hell on earth. I don’t know who the recipient of the letter was. But the message is one and the same as the Torah portion teaches us.
If and when we are focused on making ourselves a name, by making ourselves the center of attention, we have many questions, and often they cannot be answered. However, if we can remove ourselves from the equation, even a little bit, then we can see that although we have questions, there is more to the world than just us.
We will never know G-d’s ways. But we do know how we are to respond, and that is by bringing more light into this world. If we are having a difficult time with it, then we have to get out of our own way to allow ourselves to be successful.