#hashem

Source

Around 1 million people live in Ghazzah city, and they all have to choose between being displaced once again, or facing death at the hands of the IOF. For those who are displaced, they will be forced to deal with the exhaustion and costs of travel and searching for somewhere to stay.

Some of the people who are being displaced are the relatives of my friend Hashem Bader. His brothers and sisters and their families are in the north of Ghazzah City, and now must flee south. However, they don't have anywhere to stay. 

To make things worse, one of Hashem's brothers is recovering from an injury caused by missile shrapnel, and only got out of the hospital a few days ago. Now, he has to flee from the north of Ghazzah City with his wife and children.

Hashem is trying to afford an empty lot for his siblings' families to set up a tent and stay in. However, the minimum price is for such a lot is $500. This doesn't even include the extra costs for things like travel, awnings, and bathrooms, as well as the ever vital and expensive food. 

$0/$1000 USD (£737 GBP)

Hashem wants to use his fundraiser to help his relatives, but donations keep stagnating, often for days on end. Right now , Hashem's short term goal is to raise $1000, so his siblings and their families can evacuate and have somewhere to set up shelter.

Please, share and donate. Help Hashem's relatives get what they need as they endure yet another has displacement. Your help and donations make a big different to them!

Vetted #102 by @/gazavetters

G-d to me is faith and trust and love and feeding my loved ones to make sure they’re full and happy and cared for.

G-d is the feeling of my partners skin on mine and the feeling of warmth in bed and the feeling of good soup in my stomach and the feeling of my mother laughing and the feeling of my fathers approval.

G-d to me is nature and the machine and the flesh and the divine and the air and space and the unknown and the knowledge that one way or another things will be okay because we all have a soul that means something.

G-d to me is making latkes with my sister for my first hanukkah, even though she isn’t jewish she does what she can to support me and my love and my self.

G-d to me is good books and good music and art that makes me cry and language that makes me laugh and fibre of my clothing and thread of my arts and the beads of my jewelry and the light of my candles and the warmth of my blankets.

G-d to me is the hebrew that i want to learn and the english that is all i know and the french of my great grandmother and the indigenous language of my ancestors and the portuguese of my friend and the ukrainian of my classmate and whispers of my lover.

I'm probably the worst possible person for this Ask, Anon.

I like studying religion and theology, but I'm an atheist.

This doesn't get asked, however, except by someone who is hurting, who believes in God, and who feels abandoned.

It would feel wrong to hear that pain and ignore it - so I'm going to try to answer as honestly as I can. I don't think I need to share your faith to speak respectfully of it.

All I can offer, though, is my sympathy and a few thoughts.

The feeling of being abandoned by God is well known theme throughout much of Jewish literature and history.

The only kind of God I can imagine who might be worthy of the name in a world which is filled with unjust pain...is a God who is not an interventionist.

But that doesn't help, right? Knowing God isn't a vending machine isn't exactly comforting when you're starving and would give anything for a bag of Gardettos and a Dr. Pepper.

I think I was 13 when I read Rabbi Harold Kushner's take on how to reconcile the reality of human sufferingwith the concept of God's omnibenevolence.

Maybe, says Rabbi Kushner, God doesn't help because God isn't here to prevent pain. Just to witness it with us.

Rabbi Kushner might say that God does care and that God hurts when you hurt....but God does not control everything that happens to us.

The universe, says Kushner, is morally random. Disease, accidents, and cruelty are not sent by God as tests or punishments, they're simply part of a world that is not yet perfected.

God's role, says Rabbi Kushner, is not to prevent bad things from happening, but to give us the strength to endure them, the courage to keep going, and the capacity to find meaning in our pain...and this appeals to me as an atheist who embraces the idea that sanctity and meaning are things we create, not things we are given. (I started reading existentialism at 13, too.)

When God doesn't 'help' in the way we expect, Kushner says it's not because God has turned away, but because God's help isn't given in preventing the storm...but in helping us with the rebuilding afterwards.

I'm sorry you're hurting, Anon.

If you're Jewish, please know that being frustrated with or angry at God is okay? And that you're not the first Jew to feel abandoned by God by any stretch of the imagination.

I've never liked the idea of petitionary prayer...and I don't think that's the sort of prayer most Jews engage in.

I quoted Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at my Bar Mitzvah because this sentiment struck me as true and valuable to both believer and atheist:

Prayer may not bring water to parched fields, nor mend a broken bridge, nor rebuild a ruined city. But prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, rebuild a weakened will.

So...I'm not going to pray for you, Anon. I feel like that's a patronizing sort of response to hearing someone is in pain.

But maybe you can find some solace in that sort of prayer, regardless of who might (or might not) hear your prayers. If that doesn't appeal to you, perhaps a walk in nature, quiet contemplation, or meditation may help.

Rabbi Kushner would also likely say that God's help is delivered mostly through people.

Please ask for help where you can, and be open to receiving it when help is offered? Asking isn't easy. Accepting isn't easy. I hope you'll do it anyway.

Whatever you're going through, you can get through it, with or without an interventionist God.

Hashem, a lifelong carpenter in Gaza who provides for her children by making furniture, asked each of her children this question. Her eldest, Dima, dreamed of becoming a doctor to be able to provide medical care to children. Her second eldest, Aboud, dreamed of becoming an architect to rebuild structures destroyed in warfare. Her third child dreamed of becoming a mechanical engineer. Her youngest dreamed of becoming an artist of illustration and painting. A family of beautiful dreams and earnest desires to create what their communities need. 

Their family was displaced, escaping the horrors of war to Rafah, but upon return to Khan Younis were displaced over 11 more times until they reached the beach. During this process of constant displacement in an attempt to survive, Hashem was injured in the palm of her hand. She had surgery, but is in dire need of another operation. Her carpentry shop–all of her lifelong work and her source of income– was destroyed along with her family’s shelter. 

Suuuuper loaded question but humor me!

Feel free to explain your answer via reblog/tag if you feel comfortable doing so

wrose0222

I'm having top surgery TOMORROW and it's gonna take a while to heal!! Because of that, I might not be able to answer messages or comments for the next month or so, ESPECIALLY the next 1-2 weeks. It's nothing personal I promise ❤️

While I'm away please continue to support the Gazan families in my old pinned (do not let the age of the post confuse you, all 3 still desperately need as much help as they can get)