Question:
1) The night of Lag B’omer at around 6:43 eastern time, which is about 1:43 Israel time and about the time the deaths in Meron were taking place, a friend of mine in Israel called me that she could not sleep, that she was having terrible negative thinking. I walked her through confessing that she fell into negative thinking but does not want it, that she desires to bring all of it into the mitzvahs of guarding her life by getting a good night’s sleep and guarding her soul from negativity, and walked her through breathing saying Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad over and over until she fell asleep. I found out the next day that we were doing this precisely at that time. Was Hashem’s message all over Israel that night that her soul felt?
ANSWER
It is very possible. Many people also felt what you described.
Question:
2) The Chofetz Chaim tells us that whenever anything happens it is a message for the Yidden to do teshuva. As the incident became more known, we heard that a ramp had been closed off and lives were trapped and others were falling onto them. Is that saying do teshuva, that Hashem is trying to come into this world and we are blocking His Light, that He wants us to return to Him through our understanding that He is doing everything, a certain light that is trapped animating a thought or emotion we cling to that is in essence blocking hearts from recognizing Him with understanding He is concealed there?
ANSWER
That is very true, and it is one of the proper reflections to take out from it.
Question:
3) When more people told me about it, I said Hashem wants us to do teshuva. To my surprise, people had strong negative reactions to that! One wanted to be in the moment of grief feeling for the families of the victims and absorbing the shock, basically calling me unsensitive to the pain of others. Another did not want to be blamed and told me I was burning up the world. And both felt very strongly that telling people to do teshuva was too harsh on people who cannot take it, who have gone off the derech hearing those crushing messages about Hashem’s anger at us and becoming hardened and cold to Him. A third person told me that she is so numb from everything that the tragedy simply has not registered in any way. I realize that the galus has been long and we are storm tossed and we need Hashem to be gentle with us. Is the message that Hashem wants the Yidden to do teshuva applicable here?
ANSWER
Speak to each person on their own level and in their ‘language’. Any one lesson that can be learned from something will not be understood by everyone equally.
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