Rabbi Steven Bayar
This week’s Torah portion is Nitzavim-Vayelech: Deuteronomy 29:9 – 31:30
There is a troubling verse in this week’s parsha: Deuteronomy 29:28 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
One traditional interpretation teaches that God’s Divine plan is a mystery which renders us incapable of discerning God’s ultimate will. We can’t know with any degree of certainty the “why.” So, when confronted with trauma or disaster we must accept and take solace that we cannot fathom that which is unknowable.
While this explanation denies the possibility of understanding it is meant to give us the ability to function each day with a modicum of faith in God’s providence.
This worked for me until I met 25 teddy bears in Juarez, Mexico. I was there with a close friend and journalist Phil Jacobs to visit the refugee detention centers. Eva Moya, a social worker and professor at The University of Texas at El Paso, was our guide and teacher.
At one center we off-loaded toiletries, sundry items and 25 teddy bears. The director of the center called families to come and receive the stuffed animals. Fifteen minutes later there were 25 children, most with parents, lined up. As they took their teddy bears, we received sincere hugs and cries of “thank you” from both parents and children — as they finally had one toy that they could call their own.
After getting the bears, they were taken to a bus where the families boarded quietly. “Where are they going?” I asked.
“They are being deported to their country of origin.”
Over the next several days, I learned that many of them were returning to death sentences, sexual slavery or to become cartel “soldiers.”
And we were giving these children teddy bears. Teddy bears!
Two days later, on my return trip to New Jersey, my flight was cancelled. I had to stay in the Houston airport for 26 hours. To add to my misery, I had misplaced my laptop and had to sleep on airport chairs, wash up in the men’s room and wait patiently for Dunkin Donuts to open for a cup of coffee.
Worst of all, I had time to think about what I had seen: the enormity of the tragedy I witnessed with no power to change the outcome. The only weapons at my disposal were socks, underwear, T-shirts and teddy bears.
I am not speaking about the politics of the situation. I am not advocating any side in this issue — I am a witness to the human misery it engenders. My crisis of faith came when I realized that in the face of human tragedy, we can only do what we can do. But we must “do” even as we realize that we have only alleviated the suffering of a 6-year-old for a brief moment. We must not look away.
As for God. I stand with the chassidic master, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who “sued” God for Covenantal violations — and won. For God cannot explain away the suffering of children. And my “J’accuse” moment continues as I watch the suffering of children in our homeland and around the world. I cannot accept that God’s ways are “hidden” for good reason.
But we can only do what we can do. For the first time, I truly understood the dictum in Pirkei Avot: “You are not obliged to complete the task, but you are not allowed to walk away from it.”
Steven Bayar is the rabbi emeritus at Congregation Bnai Israel in Millburn, New Jersey, and currently serves as rabbi at B’nai Tzedek in Potomac, Maryland. He is the author of several books and curricula on tikkun olam.
