Is There Anyone Up There? Parshat Emor - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

A reckless biker, a stormy night on a twisting mountain road. The biker takes the curve a little too fast and finds himself sliding all across the road. He tries to stop, but it's too late. Over the edge he goes, down and down. As he's falling, he sees a root sticking out of the side of the mountain. He grabs it and holds on for dear life. "If there's anyone up there, please, please save me!" he screams. A flash of lightning, a peal of thunder, a heavenly voice booms, "Let go of the branch and I will save you." Says the rider, "Is there anyone else up there?" It's easy to believe in God when your life doesn't depend on it, when it doesn't cost you anything. That's the difference between Emunah and Bitachon, faith and trust. Emunah, faith, is an intellectual understanding of the necessity of God's existence. Bitachon, trust in God, means putting your life on the line. The best thing that's happened to the Jewish people in the last 7 months is that we see ever more clearly that we have no one on whom to rely, not the Israeli government, not the Americans, not the army, no one, no one except Hashem. As Jew hatred festers, spilling from the media onto the streets, and the state of Israel becomes increasingly isolated, vilified as a pariah and apartheid state, we see ever more clearly that our only hope is to trust in God. I just got back from London where I spent some time with some less religious friends of mine, and they're faced with the dilemma. As left-wing Anglo Jews, they now see that many, if not all, the political figures they support are either rabidly or covertly anti-Semitic. And whether they like it or not, they've been outed as Jews. They're re-examining their Judaism. They're starting to think about who they are and why the world hates us so much, and it's bringing them closer. Hashem is putting us all, all of us to the test. What sort of relationship do we have with God? Not just how much do we believe in the God, but how much do we trust him? We, the so-called religious part of the Jewish people, are also fighting a war, a war in our own hearts, a war between the voice that trusts and the voice that wants to turn on the media to see how the war is going, a war between dedicating more time to Torah learning, and the voice that wants to scan the media for good news, to waste our precious time watching public debates between Arab and Jewish advocates. Will the Americans send the bombs in the end? Will we get Sinwar? And what's going to be the day after? How many points did the Israeli Eurovision entry get? The voice that believes puts down the newspapers, turns off the computer, and picks up a book of Psalms, or opens a Gemara. Everything is good news because inexorably, Hashem is bringing us closer to the day when the whole world will recognize who the Jewish people are and who we've always been. And that's the only news we need to know. And by the way, there is no one else up there.