What does it look like to welcome grief as your divine mission, to hold tightly to G-d as you are plunged into the depths of human suffering? And what does it look like for others to witness you in your grief without looking away?
Today, Chana Wasserman shares her experience with devastating grief, and invites us to turn towards those who are grieving, and to witness their grief as a G-dly experience.
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text from episode outro:
We stand before a burning bush. The holy of holies.
The most intimate experience of G-d.
When a fellow Jew is grieving, we cannot look away.
In the face of great pain, there is only silence.
In the face of great courage, there is only silence.
G-d does not ask to answer,
But simply to sit with another person in their suffering,
Sometimes, it is so painful to imagine that we cannot will the grief away, that we unintentionally turn our gaze to distract ourselves from the immensity of another person’s pain.
This is the invitation.
This is the invitation I hear in Chana’s voice.
If you know someone who is grieving, only turn your eyes to witness them.
Not to gaze or wonder, but to witness them, fully –
To accept the process of the human experience
And to ensure that they are not alone.