The Jew in the Lotus

Suddenly I realized that when you truly entered the great stream of spiritual consciousness from which the Jewish people had been addressing God for the past several thousand years, time ceased to flow in only one way. Every point in that stream was connected to every other point and partook of it.

Speaking instead of striking is putting request and faith above force. Because these sins were not rectified, our task now is to toil in perpetual perplexity, trying to create our own space of pure permission, understanding, and peace. This is only achieved by finding the good, by learning, and by strengthening our emunah, drawing ourselves closer

There is no answer to the question, “Why do the innocent suffer?” at the level of thought. The only adequate answer is at the level of deed, in the long journey toward a world in which the innocent no longer suffer. To be sure, there is acceptance in Judaism. We call this tzidduk hadin, coming to terms with suffering and loss, saying that “all that

Jewish existence is not only the adherence to particular doctrines and observances but primarily the living in the spiritual order of the Jewish people, the living in the Jews of the past and with the Jews of the present.