Sonia Lyakhovich, Period 1, 1/6/22

 

• Literacy & Learning

• Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or non-fiction covered in class.

• Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

• How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

In class, we covered the book of Job. In preparation for the class, I read through the text, but was very confused and a little uncomfortable while reading it. I thought to myself, how could G-d allow the Satan to punish Job when he “was wholesome and upright”? 

I grew up in a non-religious household. I was never even told about believing in G-d, not to mention fearing him, so this concept was very foreign to me. As a little girl, I was told to be kind to others, to apologize, and to treat others with respect, but it had no relation to religion. We were only ethnically Jewish, not religiously. Reading this passage, therefore, shocked me. I thought the belief in G-d meant that you believed G-d would only bring you health and happiness if you were a good person.

I remembered a story I heard from a Rabbi about two Jewish men who survived the Holocaust. One man became a Rabbi and the other began studying sociology. The sociologist said to the Rabbi, “how can you continue to have faith in G-d after the horrific events you have witnessed?”. The Rabbi responded to him with another question, “How can you continue to have faith in humanity after the horrific events you have witnessed?”. Both of these men looked for answers to why horrible things happened to them, one turned away from religion, while the other embraced it. Neither one of them is more right than the other, they just chose different paths in life. I didn’t know how I would act in a situation like this, but I do understand how one could find comfort in either option. 

The lesson to take away from both of these stories is that we never know everything. At the end of the Book of Job, G-d proves that Job is not all-knowing and does not understand the path laid out for him. The story about the Rabbi and the sociologist shows that there is not a right or wrong way to live, because we don’t know everything. I hope that from these stories I can learn to make peace with not knowing. Not knowing how my life is going to pan out and not always knowing the right decision, but just doing my best and being my best self.