The Al Aksa Intifa­da and its bloody con­se­quences serve as back­drop for the many impor­tant mes­sages about belief con­tained in this book. The Intifa­da forced Jews and rab­binic lead­ers to active­ly con­front the dif­fi­cult philo­soph­i­cal ques­tions that arose in the wake of con­tin­u­al, ran­dom acts of vio­lence in Israel. Hav­ing made aliyah just weeks before the onset of the bloody vio­lence, the author took note of the reac­tions of sur­vivors and spir­i­tu­al lead­ers through­out the years of vio­lence and was struck with the pat, sim­plis­tic, and often not-well-thought-out reac­tions and expla­na­tions offered by Israeli spir­i­tu­al lead­ers to give mean­ing and pur­pose to the violence. 

Rab­bi Morey Schwartz, an only child, orphaned by age twen­ty, has spent more than twen­ty years search­ing for a sat­is­fy­ing answer to his per­son­al mis­for­tune. Search­ing tra­di­tion­al Jew­ish respons­es, he nev­er found a response that addressed his need to believe in a benev­o­lent, mer­ci­ful and all-pow­er­ful divine being, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly hon­or­ing what he con­sid­ers his ​“right” to under­stand­ing. To believe in a God that was less than all-pow­er­ful seemed point­less, and to accept that we just can­not under­stand seemed to be meaningless.The author, is a grad­u­ate of Yeshi­va Uni­ver­si­ty and Bernard Rev­el Grad­u­ate School, and mus­mach of the Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary. Dur­ing his twelve years in the Amer­i­can rab­binate, help­ing oth­ers to deal with suf­fer­ing and loss, the author found him­self express­ing a refresh­ing the­o­log­i­cal approach to this ques­tion, one which has helped count­less indi­vid­u­als work through these dif­fi­cult issues in their own lives. The book pro­vides a look at the way the sages dealt with the suf­fer­ing of the inno­cent through­out the cen­turies, pro­vid­ing the read­er with easy to read rab­binic texts arranged in a text and counter-text for­mat, for the pur­pose of pre­sent­ing mul­ti­ple Jew­ish approach­es to some very dif­fi­cult ques­tions. In addi­tion, the author pro­vides a new, inspir­ing way of look­ing at the whole busi­ness of mir­a­cles. The age-old idea that mir­a­cles arise for those who deserve them is recon­sid­ered, and a whole new per­spec­tive on the func­tion and inci­dence of mir­a­cles is pro­posed. Any per­son of any faith will want to read these words and pon­der the Divine’s role in our lives, in the good times and the bad. 

This book will become a source of great com­fort to Jews look­ing for alter­na­tive Jew­ish approach­es to suf­fer­ing and to God’s role in suf­fer­ing. This book is a must for those who coun­sel, for they above all need to be sym­pa­thet­ic to the deep sen­si­tiv­i­ties of those who seek consolation.