Tefillah Is a Battle

When Jews around the world learned of the massacre of their brethren on Shemini Atzeres, every heart was broken, every eye filled with tears. The entire Jewish People was plunged into mourning. But within us, a soft voice in the back of our minds tried to comfort us: “Don’t worry, you’re safe. Baruch Hashem, we don’t have Hamas here.”

That meek voice has been totally drowned out by the shouts of our enemies. From London to Los Angeles, Montreal to Mexico City, Jews are being called out, villainized, and threatened. The entire Jewish People, without exception, has felt the impact of the attacks on Shemini Atzeres.

We all wonder what avodah Hashem wants from us in these troubling times. In the absence of a navi, we don’t have a complete answer. But the first step is to understand that the times we’re living in now are different, not just difficult. Behind the war and the explosion of anti-Semitism, there’s a spiritual root: Hashem is relating to Klal Yisrael in a new, harsher way.

We tend to view the world through the same lens our whole lives. I don’t mean just our cultural or philosophical worldview. As religious Jews, we view the world through the lens of emunah. But most people don’t realize that within emunah, there are various ways to view and understand what’s happening around us. That’s because Hashem’s hashgachah in the world takes different forms. One form is sechar v’onesh. Many times, we can identify how our actions, or the actions of others, brought about a fitting reward or punishment from Hashem. But other times, to understand what’s going on around us, we need to use a different lens.