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I Read This Over Shabbos's avatar

Yaacov, I love this piece and the way you describe the unity of Hashem as both a mother and a father, loving and merciful, righteous and just.

G-d's ways are hard to understand though, and it seems sometimes like it is not just G-d's absence or firm guiding hand that characterize the "Father" side, but (dare I say) harshness or even cruelty. We are supposed to learn from Hashem but if we would treat our children the way Hashem treats us sometimes, we would no doubt be arrested for child abuse (I'm thinking Holocaust, Inquisition, Crusades).

These questions didn't bother me before I had children. It was much easier for me to say "Well, everything Hashem does is fair and just, and we just can't see the full picture." I still believe that this is true, but it is something that I grapple with.

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Yosef Hirsh's avatar

We aren't Robinson Crusoe...more like The Swiss Family Robinson

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