The settings for our nation’s now not uncommon mass shootings are varied
in size and function. In size, they may be as broad as an outdoor music
festival as in Las Vegas or as confined as a night club in Orlando. In
function, they may be as secular as a business’ central headquarters or as spiritual
as a church. If there were a hell, there would certainly be a special spot in
it for those who would open fire in God’s holy precincts, second only to the
most unconscionable of all settings, a school, as was the case in Newtown, CT
and Parkland, Florida.
The Jewish community, ever sensitive to the senseless loss of God’s
children, has always been shaken by these mass shootings, the latest of which took place at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life
synagogue on a Shabbat morning. Eleven members of the tribe lost their lives
that day in a barrage of bullets triggered by a man full of hate. There is no
setting “better” than any other when it comes to the loss of life, but the
shooting in one of God’s holy sanctuaries does raise that age-old question with
even greater poignancy: where was God? Where was ‘the Guardian of Israel who
neither slumbers nor sleeps”? (Psalm 121:4). Where was the Source of Life of
whom the psalmist wrote:
The Lord will guard you from all harm;
He will guard your life.
The Lord will guard your going and coming
Now and forever. (Psalm 121:7-8)
Our good member, Sharon Aaronson, has raised this question, as I am sure
so many of us have, because of all the places one might rest assured of God’s safety
and security, a sanctuary would be top on the list. Apparently, it isn’t
necessarily so. How do we reconcile the paradox of violence in God’s spaces of
peace?
God has given us two tremendous gifts--one is the gift of Torah and the
other is the gift of freedom. Torah teaches us how to live and freedom gives us
the liberty to live as we choose, including ways that run counter to Torah. If
we were so constituted as to be unable to violate law and tradition, that would
be the greatest proof that humans are trapped--allowed to make certain choices
but prevented from others. That's neither reality nor freedom. We can all
choose to live in any number of ways--healthy and unhealthy, safely and
dangerously, lovingly and hatefully. God teaches us which are the best choices,
but does not make the choice for us.
When our kids first began to drive a car solo, it was a bit nerve-wracking,
yes? The best way to keep them from an accident is to never have them drive or
enter a car to begin with. But that would be a terrible decision. Our children
need freedom; all people do. But with freedom comes a certain degree of risk as
not all people make the choices that are godly. We are all free to abuse our
freedom. If we were not free to do so, we would not be free.
As tempting as it is to question God when it comes to the senseless massacres
of this world, we may just try thinking of God as asking us a few questions as
well:
1. Why
are you blaming Me for Pittsburgh? Did I give this man an assault rifle?
2. Why
are you blaming Me for Pittsburgh? Did you not learn anything after Sandy Hook?
3. Why
are you blaming Me for Pittsburgh? Did I teach you to hate your neighbor?
At a time like this, it is easy to question God, but it’s a dodge. The
most damning aspect of all these shootings is that we have the power to, in the
very least, minimize the casualties, and somehow society has managed to skirt
the challenge.
Still, we may charge God with a degree of irresponsibility. If God is as
omnipotent and as omniscient as the divine reputation goes, where is the divine
intervention when needed. A couple of responses are warranted
here, the first of which is this: how do we really know that there is no divine
intervention? Only God knows how many other shootings have been foiled or
averted, remaining unaccounted as they never materialized to begin with. But
there is a stronger idea to contend with when it comes to God’s omnipotence and
that is this: Is God really omnipotent? The idea of an omnipotent and
omniscient God is actually a Greek idea, not a Jewish one. The Greeks were very
much involved with ideas of perfection and in imagining the perfection of the
gods. They, not the Jews, imagined gods that were omnipotent and all-knowing. A
close reading of the Bible, written of course from a Jewish perspective, does
not give us an idea of a perfect or omnipotent God. Our God is much more
human—making decisions, regretting them, becoming angry, overcoming anger,
listening to people and also commanding people who nonetheless defy divine
orders.
The Jewish mystics (we call them the Kabbalists) had another way
of thinking about this. In order to make room for humans, God had to give up
some of His power and energy in order to grant us the freedom and power to act.
God did not leave us without direction, however. God did give us the Guide book
to life, otherwise known as the Torah. But it’s up to us, not God, to implement
it. That makes human decisions, our decisions, exceedingly important.
Where was the Source of Life at the Tree of Life that Shabbat morning?
I believe the Source of Life was in that sanctuary, calming those congregants who
were hiding, strengthening those officers who were pursuing the assailant, and
leading the martyred up toward the heavens above. Our God-given freedom is
among the most precious gifts given to us, and also the most dangerous. We will
have too take God’s injunction to preserve life more seriously, by enhancing security
in our synagogues, and anywhere that people gather en masse. We will also have
to vigorously pursue those social conditions that will hamper the designs of
the wicked who seek to inflict damage on us and others. And we will continue to
ask hard questions as there is some modicum of comfort in being able to ask and
wonder. But in the end, as with so many other aspects of life, the real
questions revolve not around what God can do for us, God having given us so
much guidance already. The real question is what are we prepared to do for God in
creating the peace that God intended us to enjoy.
