Parashat Vayikra by Rabbi René Pfertzel of Kingston Liberal Synagogue.

Last Sunday, my synagogue’s council met for an “away-day” to reflect on the future of the community, to brainstorm ideas and to have these conversations that can never take place in the limited confines of a council meeting.

It felt surreal to talk about the next steps of our journey when our minds and hearts were filled with the anxiety induced by the international situation and the threat upon our heads. And yet, almost as an act of defiance and hope affirming statement, we did just that.

When the business part of our meeting ended, we talked about what we all had in our minds, trying to make sense of the current madness.

Then, someone asked: “Where is God? Where is God indeed when people, suffer when our world is at risk?”

I went through a profound crisis when I was at Rabbinical school and I witnessed a family facing the unbearable, the loss of a child.

One of my teachers introduced me to Rabbi Harold Kushner’s 'When Bad Things Happen to Good People'. In essence, Rabbi Kushner is an adept of the Process Theology, an understanding of the Divine not as an omnipotent Being in a coercive sense, but rather as a force of persuasion. Or, in Rabbi Lionel Blue’s prayer in old age, “Stick around, I need you”. As one person present at the meeting said, “God is present wherever we let God in, and the problem arises when some don’t open the door”.

I turned to my Rabbinic colleagues and asked them the same question, “where is God?” My colleagues are great. They responded with inspiring answers that I wanted to share with the larger Liberal Judaism community.

God is in the hands and hearts of the volunteers that are helping. God is within us, between us, and around us, wherever and whenever people help each other. God is also in the bomb shelters with people, with all who feel scared and powerless. One Rabbi said that, in fact, the question was wrong.

It is God who constantly asks: “Where are you? Where is your humanity? What is it you have done?”

The first chapters of the Book of Leviticus describe the highly complex sacrificial system that was in use when the Temple was standing. Sacrifices were a tool that would repair a broken relationship with the Divine. The word sacrifice itself, korban, contains the notion of getting closer, karov, to God.

By an act of voluntary giving, the Biblical worshipper would hope to repair what was broken. Our world is damaged, with a war that has the potential to spiral down into a global conflict. How do we achieve peace then?

Rabbi John Rayner wrote in our Siddur (p. 293), “peace requires sacrifice – of pride, or wealth, or territory”. We need to give something dear away.

I liked the response of my Rabbinic colleague who challenged the question. Instead of asking, where is God? let us listen to God’s compelling test, Ayeka, where are you? What are you doing to salvage the situation?

I am filled with hope when I see the members of my community getting organised to bring supplies to the refugees in Eastern Europe, to raise funds to support those in need. I am filled with hope when I see this replicated all over Liberal Judaism and beyond.

And then, I begin to hope that maybe we have reached a new level of collective awareness that all things are connected, and we cannot remain idle on the many sufferings that pull apart our common humanity. And I pray that our empathy and concern extend to all human beings suffering wherever they are.

Ayeka, where are you?