{"id":311,"date":"2007-07-19T11:50:25","date_gmt":"2007-07-19T11:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/07\/looking-for-god-in-the-dark.html"},"modified":"2007-07-19T11:50:25","modified_gmt":"2007-07-19T11:50:25","slug":"looking-for-god-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/07\/looking-for-god-in-the-dark.html","title":{"rendered":"Tisha B’Av: Looking for God in the Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both Rabbi Grossman<\/a> and Rabbi Stern<\/a> grapple with the question of God\u2019s role in calamitous events that befall us, either as individuals or as a people. If God is loving and good, it is difficult to understand these catastrophic occurrences\u2013either God is somehow “not present” at these moments or is justly punishing us for our wrongdoings.
\nThere is a danger, however, in identifying God only with those good things that happen to us, with making God overly “nice.” If we affirm God\u2019s presence only in the good, we suggest that God is absent from those moments of hardship and deprivation when we are most in need of divine comfort. Instead, it is important to recognize that God is equally present in everything that happens to us\u2013hence the rabbinic dictum that we must \u201cbless the bad the same as we bless the good.\u201d The prophet Isaiah, himself no stranger to hardship and deprivation, records God as saying, \u201cI form light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil\u2013I the Lord do all these things.\u201d (45:7)
\nAs a Reconstructionist Jew, I don\u2019t believe God ordains divine punishment or share Isaiah\u2019s belief that God is the cause<\/em> of the destruction that befalls us: God did not<\/em> will the destruction of six million innocent men, women, and children. But I do believe that God is equally present in all parts of our lives if we are open to recognizing it. It\u2019s easy to affirm God\u2019s presence in the miracle of a new life, but God is equally present in the mystery of the end of life, even if we respond to these two events (both far outside of the realm of human understanding and control) very differently.
\nTisha B\u2019Av is an opportunity to look for God and affirm God\u2019s presence even in the darkest of places.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Rabbi Grossman and Rabbi Stern grapple with the question of God\u2019s role in calamitous events that befall us, either as individuals or as a people. If God is loving and good, it is difficult to understand these catastrophic occurrences\u2013either God is somehow “not present” at these moments or is justly punishing us for our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jewish-holidays"],"yoast_head":"\nTisha B'Av: Looking for God in the Dark - Virtual Talmud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2007\/07\/looking-for-god-in-the-dark.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tisha B'Av: Looking for God in the Dark - Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Both Rabbi Grossman and Rabbi Stern grapple with the question of God\u2019s role in calamitous events that befall us, either as individuals or as a people. 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