In these times of anguish, we think about our own pain, about the pain of the Jewish people.  But according to the Talmud, God cries every time someone dies.  “God cries even when a thief dies,” says the Talmud.

All those deaths from the Hamas attack – Jews, Palestinians, people in hospitals – all of them were God’s children.  And God is crying for all of them.

There’s so much pain in the world, so much anger.  And it’s tempting to act out the anger – to strike back, to kill, to destroy the people in Gaza.  But perhaps, we have a different job to do, a different task ahead of us. It’s up to us to wipe away God’s tears.

The mystics teach that at the very moment of creation, something went wrong, and the entire world was shattered.  All the pain, all the brokenness that we experience in our lives is merely a remnant of that initial shattering.

In the mystical view, there are no good guys. There are no bad guys.  There is simply a broken world, battered by an eternity of pain, an eternity of suffering, and an eternity of mistakes.  What’s more, they say, it’s our job – with the help of the Holy One – to repair God’s shattered world.

As Abraham Joshua Heschel put it:

There is a divine dream which the prophets and the rabbis have cherished, and which fills our prayers and permeates acts of true piety.  It is the dream of a world, rid of evil by the grace of God as well as the efforts of man, by his dedication to establishing the kingship of God in the world.  God is waiting for us to redeem the world. We should not spend our life hunting for trivial satisfactions when God is waiting.

Ultimately, this is the question we have to ask ourselves:  How do I repair God’s broken world?

At this time of suffering, it’s tempting to lash out, to strike back at the people who hurt us. But striking back only continues the cycle of brokenness. And with each death, the Holy One sheds another tear.

Religions of hatred have caused more wars than any other force in history.  And according to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, there is only one force stronger than religions of hatred: religions of love.

There is only one way to break the cycle of violence. We need to control our anger. We need to open our hearts.  And most importantly, we must admit that every death is tragic.  The tears of a mother who has lost her son in war are universal.

When we are willing to let our hearts be broken, when we are willing to cry even when a thief dies, peace will come.

Shabbat Shalom
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