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What does it mean for someone to lose faith? Is it a disappointment that the world is not all good? Is it that suffering seems unfair, especially for those who have done nothing to deserve it? Nothing exists without its opposite; not good without evil, not order without chaos, not this world without what lies beyond it. Seeing the world in binaries, like good or evil or order out of chaos, may underlie our fundamental attempts to understand our existence. But when we cannot see the goodness in abject suffering, or the evil in rampant consumption, we can become coarsened to our existence, what we sometimes call losing faith.
For over two years now, Israelis and Jews worldwide have been suspended in limbo. Oct. 7, 2023 and the aftermath of violence, catastrophe, starvation and misery has hardened our hearts where there was softness, erupted within us anger where there was tranquility, and silenced us where our words of hope and promise seemed hollow. Evil was permitted to prevail. Now, after the reconstruction of the war-torn land begins, there is an outpouring of striving, of finding potential where uncertainty once existed, of rebuilding hope......
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