Absence is a Presence
2024
20" x 14"
Immediately after the massacre of
1200 Israelis and hostage taking of 240 innocent civilians on October 7, 2024,
I plunged into a state of questioning. Where was God?
Many friends and relatives whom I considered to be like minded-souls, turned away from me. In fact, I felt that God and my friends had abandoned the Jewish people.
As I always do, I researched the previous moments in history when
we felt abandoned and alone and found text both new and old to silence
my fear.
God's Breath Above the Void
In Genesis, I found in the first chapter, “The earth was unformed and void and the breath of God sweeping over the water” 1:2 Even over that chasm of Void, we find that God’s breath is casing peace. Absence answered by presence.
Adam's Plunge in Darkness
A beautiful passage from Mishna (a rabbinic legal code from the 3rd century) about Adam on his first dark night was quoted as saying,
”Because I have sinned, the world around me is dark and the universe will become again
a void.”
Adam’s fear of sin causes him to lose hope, but we see the light defining the sequoias guarding him. We know that the dawn is not far from Adam.
Miriam's Death
In Scripture, we find that Miriams’ death causes all the water to dry up for the Israelites in the desert. Miriam initiated the musical celebration when the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea. She continued to accompany the Israelites with music until her death when the music stopped. No joy and no water. Yet, we know, that later Moses did create a new font of water, and that the music started again after the mourning period ended. Her absence is palpable, a real presence of a void.
Flickering Candle Light
Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner beautifully visualized the sense of doubt we have with God’s presence by likening our search to a guard with a flickering candle to light the windy night. He can just make out the faint outlines of humans approaching him. That is how we feel the presence of God, a flickering image that we can embrace imperfectly. Sometimes, that candle will blow out in the wind, yet we can still feel the presence of God in that dark absence.
Banishing God's Exile
At the end of World War II, a great Jewish scholar named Abraham Joshua Heschel posited that lack of faith put God in exile, that humans had pushed God away. To remedy this, Heschel wrote that we need “To worship to expand the presence of God in the world.” Specifically, prayer welcomes the absent God back to our presence.
Performing Mitzvot: Man's Path to God
The great Jewish thinker Yeshayahu Leibovitz once said that only through “The performance of good deeds do we approach God, It is an infinte path the end of which is unattainable” Our daily actions of kindness, love and charity to our fellow humans are the only way we can we feel the presence of God. Our actions fill the absence of God.
God is Wherever You Let God In
The concept of Hester Panim is God's threat to Moses to turn God’s countenance away from the people if they stray. This terrible absence is the most fearful of all threats. But in the words of Reb Nachman of Bratslav, “Where is God?” God is wherever we let
God in.” God’s absence can be banished when we find God’s presence in ourselves.