Exodus 22:22
אִם־עַנֵּ֥ה תְעַנֶּ֖ה אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י אִם־צָעֹ֤ק יִצְעַק֙ אֵלַ֔י שָׁמֹ֥עַ אֶשְׁמַ֖ע צַעֲקָתֽוֹ׃
If you at all afflict them, and they cry to me, I will surely hear their cry.
This week the hearts of the Jewish community worldwide were broken. The news of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, the ongoing trauma regarding the whereabouts of their mother, Shiri, and the pain that we feel for Yarden is too much to bear. We have cried, we are angry, we are disheartened, our feelings overtake our words.
The Torah says that God hears the cries of the oppressed. This week, this doesn’t feel like enough. Consider that it took hundreds of years of slavery, and the terrible decree to throw the baby boys in the Nile river for God to do something about the cries of the Israelites. God acts, but slowly. Cries ascend to heaven, but action takes time, even in the Torah.
When God feels absent, what are we to do? In Genesis, we read that we are made in the image of God. A part of God in each of us means that we each have a share in the responsibility of helping those who cry out. God’s answer will come. Usually not soon enough. But we who acknowledge the divine spark within us acknowledge that we are also responsible to act. Calling a friend to be a listening ear is action, sharing the story of the Bibas family is action, remembering them in our prayers is action, demanding justice from our elected officials is action.
Yes, we are created in the image of God, but psalm 121 turns the notion on its head. The psalmist declares “God is your shadow.” Early Hasidic masters understood this to mean that if we want God to act from above, we must initiate from below. May the small actions each of us take elicit a divine response; an answer from God that brings comfort to the grieving, strength to the weary, and hope to those who feel lost.