By Devorah Shanowitz
Yesterday, I saw something on facebook that moved me to tears.
It was someone singing a poignant Hasidic song.
But moved to tears? Why?
Let me explain.
Hasidic music often draws from mystical Jewish teachings, and carries messages that are quite deep and esoteric. The song in question, V’afilu Bhastara, is a song that’s been quite popular in the Hasidic genre, because it touches on the existential issue of faith, when God seems absent.
The question of Jewish suffering, or Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, is that something that we as people have been struggling with ever since Moses cried to God: Lamah Hare’osah: Why Have You Done Bad to Your People?
It’s a question not easily answered.
When God seems absent, our Jewish teachings tell us, it is as if He is turned away from us. This phenomenon is referred to as Hester Ponim, Hiding of the Face, so that in exile, in difficulty, in tragedy, it seems to us that God is not there or that He does not exist. We feel unheard, unseen, uncared for. Hastara. The hiding of God, as it were. In our liturgy and our prayers, we request that the reverse be true, that God turn his Face towards us, so that we openly perceive Divine protection and love.
Back to the song, V’afilu B’hastara. Even in the Hiddeness.
Jewish mysticism teaches us that although we experience Hastara, that is not the whole story. Hasidic thought teaches us that even when there is a perception of G-d’s absence, G-d is still there with us, always. Even in our darkest moments, even in our most challenging times; even in our deepest suffering. He is there, with us. Standing with us. This idea is expressed poignantly by this song, V’afilu Bhastara. The translation of the lyrics are as follows:
Even in the Hiddeness
That is within the Hiddeness
Surely, even there
G-d is found
Even
Behind the darkest
And most difficult things
That happen to you
I stand with you
Says G-d
I stand with you
I stand with you
I stand with you
This week in Israel, Malachi Rosenfeld, a 26 year old young man was killed when Arab terrorists shot at his car and fatally wounded him. Malachi was handsome, athletic, bright young man who was driving home from a basketball game with friends, when he was gunned down in cold blood for the crime of being an Israeli and a Jew.
At his funeral this week, his father, Eliezer Rosenfeld, got up to deliver his eulogy. But instead of speaking, he began singing. And the song he sang was V’afilu Bhastra, the song about God standing with us in our darkest hour. He then added his own words: Through tears he said: God, WE are also standing. We are standing with you. We will always stand as a people.
Tomorrow, Shabbat, the 17th of Tammuz, ushers in the “The Three Weeks”. It marks the period of the destruction of Jerusalem and the holy Temple in Jerusalem, culminating with the saddest of days on the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’av. Although we have Jerusalem, we still mourn, because almost every day we hear of an incident, like Malachi, or an anti-Semitic incident in Europe, or a threat elsewhere.
Yet, Jewish mysticism teaches that even through all of this, God is standing with us.
We try to study this teaching and to internalize it. And it’s not easy. Yet, as I watched the clip on face book of Eliezer Rosenfeld singing at his son’s funeral, I thought: What an incredible faith of a brave Jewish father: In the throes of the rawness of his pain, in his moment of acute loss and who through is bitter tears, he refuses to let God hide.
And I saw eternal Jewish faith personified, an eternal Jewish people personified.
A people who refuses to let God hide.
And I cried.
Song Track for V'afilu Bhastara