Revelation

Although I was not in class when we did the chavruta assignment for Perek ג, I heard a lot of classmates say that they thought the perek was about the "bipolar angry man" who was having some serious issues as he tried to come to terms with the destruction and his anger. Although it was not explicitly stated until passuk י״ח, we inferred that the Gever was ranting at G-d.

In פסוק י״ח, the Gever's perspective did a 360. Once he said, "I'm done with G-d," he took a step back. In פסוקים י״ט-כ׳, the Gever realized that, if G-d is in control of the bad things in life, He must also control the good things in life. From that point on, the Gever's internal dialogue turned into a discussion of his past actions and his punishment. All of this was spoken about in the context of G-d existence. The conclusion that this Perek leads us to draw is that our relationship with G-d is complicated but mendable. There is still hope.

Although we said that this section (יח-כ) is the epicenter of the Sefer because it's the middle section of the middle Perek, I don't think we emphasized the amazingness of the Gever's realization. I know for a fact that we have all pondered the following question at some point in our lives:

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Those of us who have been through an emotional trauma will know how hard it is to come to terms with what has happened and cope with it internally. We talked about the steps people take when responding to a trauma. Mrs. Perl even mentioned that people sometimes get stuck after the blame phase; the only way they would be able to move on is through getting a new perspective. I know from personal experience that moving on after a tragedy is one of the hardest things to do and I have seen people reject G-d because they can't accept that something this horrible could happen to them.

In recent news, there has been one particular story that caught my eye. It caught my eye because of the parents' incredible response to the loss of their children. Last week in Israel, the four children from the Gross family were poisoned with toxic insecticide that was inadvertently left in their house. The two daughters died soon after exposure and the two sons were taken to the hospital. In light of the loss of two children and the potential loss of two more, the parents made the following plea to Am Yisrael.

It's extremely moving to see how these parents have held on to their faith even through the hard times. I hope everyone can draw inspiration from their reaction to this trauma and see that we can blame G-d in the moment, but as she said, "Everything G-d does is for the best." We may not understand it or like it, but at least we can take the new perspective and move forward.