Handling Tragedy

This week we read about Sara’s passing in חיי שרה. We are told that Avraham came to eulogize Sara and ולבכתה, which means to cry for her.

The Torah has a small כ in the word ולבכתה. One explanation is that Avraham Avinu did not cry too much. There is a Midrash that says that she died on Yom Kippur when it was forbidden to show signs of mourning.

Rabbi Twerski takes this story to teach us how the צדיקים handled their emotions. On the one hand, they were very human and reacted to pain and suffering just like everyone else. But on the other hand, their closeness to G-d allowed them to make adjustments to the difficulties to which they were confronted.

There are numerous stories of holy people passing away on Shabbat. Yet, their righteous relatives managed to delay the mourning until after Shabbat.

They also were able to quickly accept Hashem’s decree without question.

One example was the חפץ חיים when his son died. He cried out to Hashem and said, “Ribono Shel Olam, all the love that I gave to my son, I will now give to You.”

Avraham Avinu was the first to set the example as to how a believing Jew is supposed to handle tragedy.