I Need Fear No Evil  

I heard responses like, “If only I had been raised to really experience Hashem this way, my life would be entirely different. It would have saved me decades of therapy.” I also heard, “I am still struggling to unlearn the harsh notion of a wagging finger from On High.”

My email was flooded, people stopped me in the street, and I was invited out of town to lecture on this very subject. I am truly heartened by the fact that people are so engaged in this discussion. Nothing is more consequential than our personal relationship with Hashem. To quote one pithy observer, “Rabbi Sklare’s article elevated the entire level of discourse. At Shabbos tables, shul kiddushin, and sheitelmachers, people are debating how to conceive of Hashem instead of petty politics.”

What especially struck me was the depth of human pain that came through in people’s responses. People suddenly felt motivated to confide in me feelings of rejection from their youth, bullying they experienced, and other stigmas that continue to haunt them. I tried to do more listening than talking. I felt that empathy and humility were the most useful response.

But what I intuited between the lines was the urgent  question, “How can you speak about Hashem’s love when life seems so miserable? We might know intellectually that Hashem loves us, but we don’t seem to feel the love.”