Seekers are Finders
"My eight year old daughter," she continued, "was standing just a few feet away from the terrorist. Right before he detonated the bomb, a little boy...
Through talking about God and about how God is present in our own lives, we strengthen our emuna. When we strengthen our emuna, we walk, so to speak, hand in hand with the Almighty.
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On the evening of Tuesday 19 August 2003 a Hamas suicide bomber, from the West Bank town of Hebron, boarded a Number 2 bus as it was departing from the precinct near the Western Wall. The bus was filled with worshipers, including many women, children, and families. The bomber was dressed as a religious Jew.
He made his way to the central part of the bus (an area including several baby-buggies). As the bus was driving through the neighborhood of Beit Yisrael, he detonated his bomb.
Twenty-two passengers on the bus were killed, most instantly. Body-parts were blown dozens of meters away from the scene, and many victims’ bodies were unrecognizable. One hundred and thirty-four people – passengers, pedestrians, and drivers of nearby vehicles – were injured, many seriously. The bomb had been packed with ball-bearings to maximize the suffering of the victims.
Rescue workers described the attack as the most gruesome in three years of the Palestinian Intifada: “There were small babies bleeding on the ground. One of the [rescue] workers was leaning over an infant, no more than 15 months old, giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation…. it was hopeless” (Israeli rescue worker, quoted in Ha’aretz 20 August 2003).
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Yesterday evening, a very special woman — actually an insurance agent! – stopped into our home to discuss a problem we were having with our insurance policy. In the course of the conversation I mentioned how much we enjoy living in the center of town, especially being within walking distance of the Kotel.
The moment I mentioned the word, “Kotel” she asked me if I remember the tragedy that occurred a few years ago, when an Arab suicide bomber blew himself up on a number two bus jam-packed with Jews returning from the Kotel. “Almost my entire family was on that bus,” she said. “I cannot begin to describe the miracles that we, personally, experienced.”
As I listened to her story – how she lost a grandchild, how her daughter-in-law’s thigh was completely shattered and her son suffered multiple fractures and burns, how she ran from one hospital to the next, thinking that she was coming to offer support to her family but leaving amazed at their courage and emotional strength, I was overwhelmed at her ability to remain so positive. “It was difficult, but looking back I can only say that we, as a family, grew tremendously in facing these challenges.
“My eight year old daughter,” she continued, “was standing just a few feet away from the terrorist. Right before he detonated the bomb, a little boy, around four years old, raced to the center of the bus, where the terrorist was standing. The terrorist looked almost fondly at the boy, smiled, said, ‘Such a sweet child,’ and then blew himself up, instantly murdering the little boy in addition to dozens others.
“My daughter was only lightly injured – perforated ear drum and shrapnel in the eye. Immediately after the explosion she was completely blind and thus spared the horrible sight of body parts and blood thrown everywhere. She regained her sight within a few weeks. She was transported to the hospital together with an injured woman who recited Tehillim with my daughter and quietly encouraged her with words of emuna. What a kindness from Above! Hashem prevented my daughter from seeing things that she should not see and then He sent a human angel to reinforce her emuna after the explosion!”
As I listened to this woman – a regular, everyday business woman, not a rabbi or spiritual leader – describe her family’s ordeal, I found myself both moved and inspired by her ability to find the spark of Divine Providence that exists within everything – even a terrorist attack!
God is Everywhere
We know that God exists everywhere, that He is always with us, that everything that happens has a reason and is for our spiritual benefit. But how do we take that knowledge, that intellectual understanding, to an emotional level. How do we bring it into our hearts? It is only when that understanding reaches that a deep level that we have a fighting chance of winning the war against the Yetzer Hara.
I once heard that the longest distance in the world is the distance between a person’s brain and his heart. Understanding a concept does not automatically mean that we abide by that concept. We know, for example that smoking is bad for our health, and we also realize on an intellectual level that we should not do anything to damage our health. Although we all want — on both an intellectual and emotional level — to be healthy, many of us have yet to internalize – to bring from an intellectual understanding to an emotional, gut-rending feeling — the fact that smoking is bad for us. If we did, well, the cigarette companies would soon be out of business!
In the eyes of youth, the discrepancy between intellectual knowledge and emotional gut-feeling realization is called hypocrisy. But as we get older we discover that attaining that level of deep, emotional down-in-the-guts understanding is an ongoing battle. As we mature, our intellect also matures. We are charged with bringing that intellectual maturity to an emotional level.
How? How can we bring lofty Torah concepts into our everyday life? Through discovering the Divine Providence — the spark of Godliness — that exists in everything, since “The entire world is filled with His glory.” On a practical level, how do we find that spark, that hint of holiness, which is all-to-often concealed to such an extent that it appears to be non-existent?
The first step is to look for it! Without searching, without truly desiring to find that spark of Godliness — the inner meaning – in our daily life, its very existence will constantly elude us. We will live in a one-dimensional colorless world of pure physicality without inner meaning. But the moment we truly desire to find those sparks, we will be able to perceive them.
The second step is to talk about the sparks, to speak about the manifestations of Divine Providence that we have discovered. Through talking about God and about how God is present in our own lives, we strengthen our emuna. When we strengthen our emuna, we walk, so to speak, hand in hand with the Almighty. Everything in our lives becomes real and meaningful – and in addition, we discover even more sparks of Godliness as we continue to perceive God’s hand in everything.
God is here, with us — today, yesterday and tomorrow. It is up to us to search for Him, and to find Him.
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