Haftarat Lech Lecha: Does God Care? Finding Purpose in Difficult Times

Does God really care about us? How can it be that measly, miniscule humans like us possibly grab the attention of the Almighty, the Knower and Creator of all? Why would God be interested in whether my life is righteous or sinful? These are questions that many are struggling with today as Israel and the Jewish people are going through an extremely difficult time.

Does God care about how we are dealing with our heavy and ongoing losses of family, friends and community members? About our being attacked on multiple fronts as our hostages remain in Gaza? About all the ordinary people doing extraordinary acts to keep going despite the trauma and challenges?

These questions and doubts are not new. In this week’s Haftarah, Yeshayahu addresses this question as he hears his fellow Jews doubting (see Ibn Ezra’s Isaiah 40:27) that God even notices their actions. Yeshayahu responds: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Eternal is God from of old, Creator of the earth from end to end, Who never grows faint or weary…” (ibid:28).

Yeshayahu’s view is clearly that God is deeply invested in our lives and in our actions, eager to see our success. “I strengthen you and I help you, I uphold you with My victorious right hand” (ibid. 41:10). God stands by us; God is committed to seeing us flourish, granting strength to the weary and inspiration to the unsettled.

However, the initial verses of the Haftarah also push back against this view, that God does not care. Yet making the emphatic statement without really explaining why. Perhaps that is the point! God does care about our actions, but the reason may be beyond our comprehension. This conundrum is what the Haftarah wishes to explore.

It must be that God participates in our personal and national development, taking pride in our advances forward and supporting us when the journey seems arduous. For it is God who, as an expression of partnership with humankind, bequeaths to us the responsibility of partnering with Him in bringing spirituality and morality into this world. It is God who becomes “greater” as the piece of God, the soul within us, shines ever more brightly as we engage in bringing light into the world.

The paradigm of this journey of growing with God, expanding and enhancing the Godliness that is present in our world, is none other than ‘the one who arose from the east’ (Isaiah 41:2) – our patriarch Avraham. It is Avraham Avinu who walks before God (Cf. Bereishiet 17:1), who is charged in this week’s Torah portion to go off on a journey to a place unknown and to bring Godliness to new corners of the world.

Avraham is described as the ‘lover’ of God (Isaiah 41:8), for it is Avraham who is in an ongoing relationship with God, challenges injustice and smashes the idols of the past to bring God further and deeper into the world. And it is the Avraham of this week’s parsha whom we are called on to emulate, as emphasized in the Haftarah: “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham…” (ibid).

As individuals and as a nation, we are called to see the hand of God in our every action, and to feel that God relies on us to illuminate Divine perfection. Through acts of justice and righteousness, we embody this partnership and expand God’s presence in this world each and every day—even in the face of great challenges and tragedy.