God's Voice in the Hurricane

The magnitude of the tornado that hit Oklahoma this week was shocking
A level 5 tornado is a 1 in a thousand event
I saw an aerial photo: 20 blocks flattened
Over 200 mph, 1.3 miles wide, 22 miles on ground
Flattened 13,000 homes, 2 schools and a hospital
24 people killed incl 9 children, 237 injured, tens of thousands homeless
Given magnitude, actually amazing how few casualties

we read Psalm 29 when we take out the torah:
The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
The God of glory thunders;
The LORD is over many waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;
The voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars,
Yes, the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes them also skip like a calf,
Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire.
8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
The LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth,
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”
The psalm is describing a major storm moving in—first over the sea, then to Lebanon, and down to Israel. The repetition of the name Lord hammers in the point, of the power of God experience in nature, perhaps trying to mimic thunder.
I have sensed this power on top of Mt Adams, seeing the vastness of the land below me
In Utah, overlooking 2000 foot deep canyons
Sense: there is an immense power in the universe—
Awe is a unique human experience-
Yirah=aware of some\thing immensely greater than myself (not fear)
It is a scary experience, because in the face of such power
We are powerless—
Compared to tornado we are flecks on the surface of the earth
This force does not always bring gifts, it doesn’t seem to know me or care about me personally.
Heschel: awe: opening into something beyond the raw facts of the physical universe
calls on me to respond

Jewish response: Bracha “shecocho ugevurato malei et ha’olam
We notice it
We identify it with word “God,” which sounds like a name for an individual
But really a placeholder for unknowable source of these powers
What do we know about this power?
Massive power—we don’t remember how massive
Benevolent/life producing
Creates
Reveals—source of wisdom
Redeems—can tap into to escape difficult situations
Can tap into in our souls

Is this power benevolent?
At times seems benevolent
What if I say a brocho “shecocho,”
I notice the beauty and immensity—I appreciate it
I have stood with Hannah for an hour in the darkened bedroom
Watching lightning strikes out the window
What if it just so happens that the lightning strike,
the one I said my brocho over,
happened to kill someone?
Massive power, the forces that made for life,
Are massive beyond our individual control
And beyond our sense of what we as tiny humans want

Mishna: Bless on the evil as well as the good
1 approach: it’s all good (talmud, rabbi akiva)

R. Akiba was once going along the road and he came to a certain town and looked for lodgings but was everywhere refused. He said 'Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good', and he went and spent the night in the open field. He had with him a cock, an ass and a lamp. A gust of wind came and blew out the lamp, a weasel came and ate the cock, a lion came and ate the ass. He said: 'Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good'. The same night some brigands came and carried off the inhabitants of the town. He said to them:15 Did I not say to you, 'Whatever the All-Merciful does is all for good?1 (berachot 60b-61a)
It’s a wonderful attitude to have—
Trying to find a blessing in everything
Doing so, we may be able to turn an apparent curse into a blessing

But when 7 children die in a school, it’s not good,
it’s not God’s decree or punishment
those children were not meant to die

The truth is, we say a different brocho for the good or for the bad:
Hatov vehameitiv
Dayan ha’emet—when someone dies, try to accept it
We need to accept it, or we’ll suffer endlessly
Perhaps “true judge”—god was right
Or “judge of truth”—god has the right to give life & take it away
I have to accept it, or else live in perpetual psychic torment
So yes, we do see the hand of the divine,
but we experience it in a different way—we experience God as judge rather than benefactor.

don’t say a brocho on vinegar—not on a curse. There are things which are entirely negative, and beyond seeing God in at all.

Rambam: ultimately, needs to destroy to build—evil is secondary goal, not primary
Rav Kook wrote:
The world appears most advanced and perfected when seen in its developed, built-up state. But upon deeper reflection, it is possible to recognize that there is also a need for destructive forces in the world. If we can perceive the benefits of destructive phenomena — like the positive role played by forest fires in the growth and regeneration of a forest — then we may grasp how also these forces indicate the underlying purpose and Divine wisdom governing the universe.
So this divine power, which creates an amazing world, sadly also creates massive calamities.
But the same divine power can also speak through our souls, through our response.
When Anna Canaday, at Plaza Tower Elementary School, covered 4 kindergarteners with her body to save them, and protected them from a car that fell in the hallway—she survived, and saved the children, by the way—it weas the same power coming from her soul.
Rhonda Crosswhite, a 6th grade teacher, heroically lay down on top of her students to shield them from the rubble. “I was in a bathroom stall with some kids and it just started coming down, so I laid on top of them. I never thought I was going to die. The whole time I just kept screaming to them, ‘We’re going to be fine, we’re going to be fine, I’m protecting you.” All her students are now safe, and their parents credit their children’s survival to their teacher’s amazing courage. This was the same power as in the tornado.
When neighbors rushed to the school to lift rubble from victims, it was the same power.
The end of psalm 29 says:
The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood,
And the LORD sits as King forever.
11 The LORD will give strength to His people;
The LORD will bless His people with peace.
Just as God’s power is in the storm, so too can it be found in our own souls, in our efforts for peace and healing, in our ability to help, our ability to rebuild.

When Elijah went to the desert looking for God, on a visionquest, the Tanakh writes:

“behold, Gd passed by, and a great and powerful wind smashing mountains and braking rocks went before Gd; but Gd was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake; but Gd was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire; but Gd was not in the fire. [Gd created nature, but nature is not Gd.] After the fire came a still small voice.” And there he found Gd.