Lamentations: Third Kinah 16

“…when they rebelled wantonly…” As devastating as was the destruction it was a challenge from God, pushing us as a people to grow. We had to learn to live as Jews under the most difficult of circumstances. We had

to constantly apply Halachah and Hashkafah to new situations. The exile challenges our creativity and forces us to apply the Torah Sh’ba’al Peh thereby enforcing the most powerful expression of our relationship with God. (See Kinah 1I.

(2) In the latest stage of our exile we must deal more than ever with a high number of Jews who abandon their Judaism because they do not experience its relevance, nor its meaning to them. We have been challenged to articulate our relationship with God in a manner that will touch everyone. We have been forced to explain the commandments and their messages thereby refining our own understanding of each Mitzvah. We are being forced to grow as a people, which is God’s guiding hand and expression of His love and belief in our potential.

Each time we are faced with a crisis, such as the high number of children who are miserable and experimenting with drugs and sex, we are actually being challenged by God to grow. If we ignore these children, we are ignoring God’s challenge and even His role in history. If we respond to the crisis by learning new ways to reach our children and prepare them to live in a society that is so inimical to Judaism we will have met the challenge of God.