Emunah (i.e., “faith”) therefore understands temporal suffering as part of the greater purposes of God in the world. It sees beyond the painful moment and trusts that God is “busy putting all the pieces together.” Everything has a reason, and that includes the seemingly trivial as well as the obviously tragic. The life of emunah calls us to live as toshavim (תוֹשָׁבִים) – sojourners – who are put at a “distance” from the world of appearances. Faith leads to a form of divine “homesickness,” a cry of protest over the state of this world and its evils, and a gnawing hunger for love and truth to prevail in the world. By itself, emunah would die of intolerable heartache were it not for the gift of God’s comfort. Indeed, the Scriptures describe God as Av Ha-Rachamim (the Father of mercies) and the God of all comfort: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3).
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