Living in a Time of Constant Tension: Parshat Shemini |
We are living in a constant state of tension. Since Purim, time has seemed to accelerate unnaturally. And now it is the day after Pesach—we all exclaim, where has the time gone. We moved like zombies—waking in the middle of the night to sirens, or worse, lying awake in anticipation of them. Sleep became shallow and uncertain. Even now when there is a two-week ceasefire, on some level, we are still numb. Can we trust it. We still wait for the next catastrophe, hoping it will not touch us or those we love. We remain glued to the news, trying to find out whose lives have been shattered—and do we know them? This strange combination of dread and detachment is our daily reality.
It is no surprise, then, that many of us find ourselves returning to familiar texts and reading them in entirely new ways. That is, after all, the purpose of study: to keep texts alive and relevant. But since October 7th, this process has intensified. Biblical and rabbinic narratives now feel less like distant stories and more like reflections of our present condition.
The Struggle to Understand Evil
Before October 7th, many of us identified as centrist liberals, inclined toward seeing the good in all people. I still hold that identity. Yet it has become increasingly difficult to maintain faith in the potential goodness of humanity. Evil, it seems, is not only present—it is persistent. Can it be fought? Should we even try, knowing it can never be fully eradicated? These questions have accompanied me since I finished teaching the Book of Job two years ago. There, God answers Job מתוך הסערה—from the whirlwind—yet offers no clear resolution to the problem of unjust suffering. The imagery of Leviathan suggests that even the Divine contends with forces of chaos and evil. If God does not provide a satisfying answer to suffering, how can we? And more troubling still: what if God allows, or even participates in, what we perceive as........