When we saw the tragedy in Poway, California, which took the life of one wonderful woman and injured 3 others this past Shabbat, it’s impossible to simply move on from yet another violent act. It’s going to take a profound change in our national values to counteract such devastating behavior. It’s going to take a deep yearning within each of us to challenge and transform our national understanding about life, and turn it into a determined commitment toward the utmost compassion and respect.
The hardest thing to do is to move forward from such devastation. It’s especially hard when we understand that there is a greater wisdom in the universe who is said to know everything that happens here on earth. How could this happen if we are told to trust that God is good?
This is when people ask: Where was God? It hurts to think that we are all here by the grace of this higher power, and yet we are all so vulnerable. What can we do in the face of such tragic violence?
Rabbi Goldstein, the rabbi at Poway, gave a brilliant, powerful response. He said we must be determined to bring more light and more love into the world.
The only way we can change such hateful behavior is for us to bring more love into every moment of our lives. We need to be more mindful, every day, about what we say and what we do. We need to look at our actions very carefully to make sure that our intentions are never misconstrued.
Whenever we try to solve our problems, we keep discovering that life is far more complex than we can understand on the surface. When we are ready to acknowledge and come to terms with this fact, we’ll discover that there is a higher wisdom to the universe. This is when we’ll start to realize that this higher wisdom is hidden deep inside every one of us. It’s up to each of us to learn how to reach for this from within our own self.
It’s only when we learn that we are each individually connected to the greater wisdom of the universe—Eyn Sof—that we can discover how closely we are also, through this connection, harmoniously connected with each other.
This inner path can eventually lead us into an awareness that paradoxically lifts us above the limitations we see in the material world, even while we are still living as physical beings in the physical world.
The Baal Shem Tov said we should view this world as “achizat eynayim,” which means that our world is an “optical illusion.” This means that we all live within the interconnected energy of the universe—something that is now clearly confirmed by science. Eventually, everyone on earth will be more willing to come into harmony with each other and with the whole world through this inner understanding of interconnected oneness.
We all need to lift ourselves and each other up into this higher level of awareness. This is the challenge we’re being given now. And the only way to fulfill this challenge is to become more aware of the loving wisdom of the universe that exists within every one of us. Only then will we be able to do our part to come together and make this world a better, more peaceful place for all of us to enjoy.