Love is a Choice. Farewell to Job

Love is a Choice.

Today we are making a choice, a conscious shift from agony to ecstasy, from loss to love - however we can. Here’s why - Under this mid winter full moon the Jewish calendar celebrates the birthday of trees, which is the first subtle switch into the spring season, while the Gregorian calendar celebrates Valentine’s Day - all about love and red roses, and while the news from the world continues to rock us between horror and hope -- we on the Below the Bible Belt journey to read through the entire Hebrew Bible are moving today from agony to ecstasy - we just ended 42 chapters of the Book of Job and on Sunday we’ll begin the 8 juicy chapters of the Song of Songs. I’ll take any reminder and poetic potion to remind me that love is all there is and it’s worth waiting for, and activating in every way we can.

But before we run through the royal rooms with the bride and bridegroom of the most erotic and mystical poem in our tradition - a word of farewell and reflection on Job, our story of suffering, struggling with faith in divine love and human kindness.

You don’t have to dig deep in old books to encounter human suffering.

Just a week ago three more Israeli hostages came home from Gaza, and unlike the previous tearful reunions there were followed with loud gasps - these men were starved and tortured. Joy mixed with horror was heard worldwide. Sadly, similar photos and reactions were seen and shared as Palestinian prisoners were reunited with their families, some killers, most not — some of them exhibiting signs of extreme suffering, hunger and hurt. There are so many who suffer when wars tear us apart and hatred replaced love or even simple decency.

There’s just one image I want to focus on.

I keep going back to this photo from this past Saturday, as Eli Sharabi, one of the freed hostages, a modern day Job, is embraced by his relatives in an Israeli hospital, reunited, free at last. Eli just found out that his wife and two daughters were killed on 10/7. His brother died while in captivity. Tortured mentally and physically, this starved survivor came home a broken hero, another heartbreaking victim of this cruel ongoing conflict that is only getting worse.

In the photo, Eli’s brother Sharon who fought fiercely for the return of all hostages, is wrapped in a prayer shawl while praying the Shma prayer and wrapped in his family’s grief and joy.

It is a rare religious moment in this ongoing series of reunion photos we’ve been glued to these past weeks.And we are hopeful that more are coming home tomorrow.

This moment was literally a liminal life and death threshold marked with this pious performative gesture of gratitude and faith. The feel of the fabric is the longing for protection in the deepest sense. This Talit is worn by a brother who responded to the primal, oldest question asked by the first human killer- Am I my brothers’ keeper - by saying yes - and showing up tirelessly for his brothers’ life and liberation. Now he stood there in prayer, wrapping his bereaved brother with what may be the most helpful thing yet - faith in himself, in recovery and healing, in some kind of hope that there is life after the horror. Perhaps the gift here is simply the miracle of being alive, together, and knowing that Eli, even with his terrible losses, is not alone. Kibbutz Be’eri welcomed Eli home with the words “We will embrace and give you the warmest and best protective hug possible.”

This is the main message I am taking from the Book of Job. While Job looks to God for answers - his friends fail him with lengthy speeches that dont love him enough to just console and hold his hand.

Religious words and gestures can be off putting, bland, cliche or worse - toxic and hurtful.

But what matters most is the most important teaching in the Jewish canon, the central word in our tradition - You Shall Love - love a little more, expand your empathy - start with self, expand to family and friends, not always easy, and keep going - even to those with whom it is hard to love. If Job’s friends would have been there for him fully perhaps he would have found consolation and comfort much sooner. But then we would not have the book that helps us heal and ask big questions about how to live this life, with more courage, compassion, trust in each other - and love.

Job is every single one of us.

Elie Wiesel - who knew what it’s like to survive the horrors of the Holocaust - he was liberated from Buchenwald along with my father -- wrote that "Job is the man who suffered. Job is the man who dared to challenge. Job is all of us."

And if will suffer and will need ways to heal - we are also the ones to help each other rise, and do better than Job’s companions.

My friend and teacher Rabbi Tamar Elad-Applebaum reminds us that "The Book of Job calls us to be better friends to those who suffer. “

And finally - as we move from Job to the Song of Songs, from winter, gradually to spring, from despair to a bit more hope that kindness will one day prevail over greed - a reminder from a revered and beloved teacher, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg in his recent book The Triumph of Life:

"The Book of Job forces us to move beyond simplistic theology. It confronts us with the truth that sometimes, suffering is not a punishment, and God is not a vending machine of justice. We must build a world where justice exists because we demand it, not because we expect it to be automatic."

May they all come home and heal and recover, body and soul, with patience and love and kindness. May peace prevail and all people overcome this long chapter of cruelty and pain.

Love and justice, chapter by chapter, onwards. Under this full moon I wish us all peace and healing, solidarity and hope. Thank you for joining me below the bible belt -- starting Sunday - we’ll be singing the Song of Songs.

Shabbat Shalom.