Five Foundations of Faith in Times of Crisis

After the tragedy in Meron where 45 lives were lost, Rabbi Tuvia Pollak spoke about the obligation of faith. Rabbi Pollak, who lost his wife and later his eldest daughter, called on the Jewish people to stand up to the test and accept God’s will with love and without questions. He explained that there are five truths we must recognize to stand firm during such difficulty:

1) We do not understand Heaven’s calculations

“We do not understand Heaven’s calculations. The Jewish way is that we do not understand, and we are not meant to understand. The highest level of the Jew is not understanding. It is the courage of ‘And Aaron was silent.’ For Aaron the High Priest it also happened on the day of the inauguration of the Mishkan, when two great men of the generation passed away in the middle of the celebration there — ‘and Aaron was silent.’ That is the Jewish aspiration.

We have a great and wise Creator; He knows what He is doing. There are no answers, because there are no questions. The more terrible, strange, frightening, and unusual the story, the less we ask. We are one-time beings who barely grasp a matter in Torah — will we grasp such a Heavenly process? Who knows how much future redemption may come in the wake of this event? We do not try to understand.

“We say ‘Shema Yisrael,’ we close our eyes and cover them with the right hand — the strong hand. That is our strength: we do not understand. Certainly not. We are proud not to understand. We know there is a Creator who runs the world. There are no mistakes — especially in matters touching the entire Jewish people.

How do we hold on? With simple faith that the Holy One, blessed be He, does everything and we do not understand. That is the Jewish way. The pain is very great, terrible — but to understand? We should be shaken by the idea that we are even trying to understand. We know that God is here and that He does everything; He knows very well what He is doing, down to the smallest details. The first foundation is to not try to understand. Believe in our mighty King, that nothing moves except by Him.”

2) Do not attribute it to “happenstance” — everything is from Him

“Do not pin this on coincidences. ‘There is none besides Him.’ God is shaking us. Beware of falling into the path of chance. Do not try to find culprits — the fence, the police, the railing — Heaven forbid. Do not flee to the way of happenstance. Do not blame. Be very careful. God is jolting us so powerfully. Therefore, it is better to look at fewer pictures and not busy ourselves with every detail. ‘If only this’ and ‘If that had happened’ — such phrases should not leave our mouths. Beware of interpretations. It is not a coincidence. The great danger here is that people of ‘chance’ will take over the narrative. Be very careful. This is the second foundation: do not attribute it to chance; everything is decreed from Heaven.”

3) God is here and loves us — believe it with all your might

“Especially during such a hard time, do not forget for a moment that we are Jews. We have endured many exiles, persecutions, the Holocaust; entire families were murdered before our eyes. The Jewish People is accustomed to blows and always know how to accept. The well-known Zohar says that if human beings knew how much God loves the Jewish people, they would run after Him in the streets roaring like young lions.

The situations looks very bad, but God loves us so much. If we could ascend to Heaven, we would see how God is preparing redemption here — and that God weeps with us over all the pain. Precisely in troubles we must remember that God is only thinking of how to do good for us.

We must know without a doubt that all the Jews who were killed there in this terrible way, who came to pray, died in the midst of a mitzvah. Each of the deceased completed his mission.

“The Rambam writes that there is no greater atonement than one who dies through suffering. Who knows Heaven’s calculations? One day the Jewish people will merit to understand what happened here, and then, when the light is kindled, we will understand that there was never any darkness.

When Moses came to Egypt he said: ‘Know that God is with you with every attribute of mercy.’ We must have faith that God is present and loves us, especially in the darkness."

4) Strengthen prayer

"Prayer is a declaration that everything is from Him, and that everything is for the good. Let every Jew strengthen his prayer — come earlier to pray, come calmer, pray with a stronger voice. The main prayer is Shacharit. Come on time, say the entire prayer, ask, connect, plead, and cleave to Him. All fear of Heaven comes from prayer. Lift your eyes upward, pray, trust in Him, and be bound to Him.”

5) Increase peace in the world — love every person

“The holy Arizal says to accept upon oneself, before prayer, the positive commandment of ‘Love your fellow as yourself.’ When we see such judgment in the world, let us strengthen ourselves in this mitzva. Love every person at home, outside, across all groups and communities and backgrounds. ‘No vessel holds blessing except peace.’ That is the great strength of the Jewish people. Peace is the condition for receiving the Torah, for the resting of the Shechinah, and for every good thing. Love each person without any calculations or conditions. Precisely at such a time, we must build a great edifice of faith."