Responses vs. Answers

Over the last few days I found myself grappling with my feelings and thoughts about the tragedy that befell the Sassoon family last Shabbos…  How to make sense of what happened? What am I supposed to think? What does the Torah teach me about how to respond to tragedy? And finally, the most pressing of all, “Why!? How can Hashem do this?”

I was in a frenzy, looking for comfort, inspiration and insight… and I learned that I will never find an answer to that question. 

Furthermore, finding an answer, any answer, and even looking for one, may not be a good thing either.

I learned that the Torah response is not to ask but to act. 

There is no answer.

I must stop looking for answers so that I can have room in my heart to feel for those who are suffering and share their pain. And when I have true compassion for the bereaved I would be compelled to do something about their loss: Increase in my Avodah and demand from Hashem to bring Moshiach now so that they will not have to suffer so much!

I should feel sad, but if I am truly selfless, I will not stop there. 

In his book, “Once Upon a Shtetl”, Chaim Shapiro describes the eulogy given for the Chofetz Chaim in the Lomze Shul by R’ Moshe Shatzkes…

R’ Moshe turned to the Aron Kodesh, opened it and told everyone to sit down, and in his inimitable niggun, he cried out, “All of Klal Yisrael is sitting Shivah for its great Rebbe, the Chofetz Chaim! There is only one left to perform the mitzvah of nichum aveilim, comforting the bereaved. Only You, Kevayachol, Master of the Universe. So, send us – now – Moshiach Tzidkeinu!”

The key to attaining true comfort (and even answers) is bearing the pain together - and doing something to end it.  

Let us Daven for the day when we will no longer have to share others' pain because Hashem has offered us the ultimate answer and Nechama.

What am I going to do to make the pain end sooner?