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Even When It Seems G-D Has Turned Away

by Ram ben Ze’ev


Even When It Seems G-D Has Turned Away
Even When It Seems G-D Has Turned Away

In every generation, we are reminded of the bitter truth: the hatred of the Nations is not circumstantial, not political, and not born of misunderstanding—but spiritual in nature.


The continued attacks upon our people—the humiliation, the lies, the violence and bloodshed—are not new phenomena. They are echoes of millennia of abuse at the hands of the Nations. And today, as in times past, the question is raised: Where is G-D?


As expressed in תהלים (Tehillim – Psalms) 77:


החסדו לנצח גמר דבר אין לדר ודרהשכח חנות אל אם קפץ באף רחמיו סלה


“Has His faithfulness disappeared forever? Will His promise be unfulfilled for all time? Has G-D forgotten how to pity? Has He in anger stifled His compassion? Selah.”



These are not the words of heresy, חס ושלום (chas veshalom – G-D forbid), but the broken hearted cries of the faithful who struggle to reconcile Divine concealment with Divine covenant. The pain is real—but so is the resolution, which follows immediately in verse 11:


ואמר חלותי היא שנות ימין עליון


“And I said, ‘It is my fault that the right hand of the Most High has changed.’”

clarifies רש״י (Rashi) claridies:


מחשבתי אומרת כי אין זאת אלא להתחלותי וליראני לשוב אליו


“My thoughts tell me: This is only to terrify me and frighten me into returning to Him.”


The change is not in G-D. The change is in us. The “change in the right hand of the Most High”—the apparent withdrawal of Divine strength—is not desertion, but a reflection of our spiritual condition.


This principle is rooted in the תורה (Torah). In דברים (Devarim – Deuteronomy) 8:5:


וידעת עם לבבך כי כאשר ייסר איש את בנו ה׳ אלקיך מיסרך


“And you shall know in your heart that just as a man chastises his son, so does the L-RD your G-D chastise you.”


The זוהר הקדוש (the Holy Zohar) in חלק ג (chelek gimel – Volume III), דף ר״ע עמוד ב (270b) teaches that the concealment of Divine mercy is never abandonment. It is preparation. The absence is not punishment but provocation—urging the soul to return to its Source. The hidden kindness is only hidden, not lost.



In לקוטי אמרים (Likutei Amarim – Tanya), פרק כה (chapter 25), the Alter Rebbe writes:


כי כך טבע הדרך שכל דבר צריך להיות מתגבר על מתנגדו בכל תוקף


“It is the nature of the path that every matter must overcome its opposition with full force.”


This is the essence of the struggle. Not a contradiction of holiness, but its confirmation. In פרק יד (chapter 14), Tanya describes the beinoni (the intermediate individual), who constantly wages war against his inclination. His struggles are not a sign of weakness, but of engagement, proof that the soul remains attached and striving.


The author of תהלים does not assign blame to Heaven. He writes: חלותי היא—“It is my fault.”


Not because G-D has changed, but because the closeness we seek must be earned through refinement, not entitlement.



We are living in an age of concealment. But concealment is not absence. G-D is present—in the silence, in the struggle, in the waiting. What feels like distance is an invitation to return.


May we respond with אמת (emet – truth), with תשובה (teshuvah – repentance), and with unwavering אמונה (emunah – faith), so that once again we will merit to see the light of ימין עליון—the right hand of the Most High—restored before our eyes.


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