We are not to question God’s decision at taking someone in the prime of his life
. We are to possess the equanimity of Beruriah & Meir; to accept that loved ones are not our possessions, but rather God’s treasures, to be restored to their rightful owner at any time.
But I find that I cannot accept with such grace the enormity of the loss of life in war.
I think that most of us
even if we aspire to achieve the kind of
righteousness displayed by Beruriah & Meir are not so easily comforted by an explanation that death is the natural order of life. In the moment that we confront death—especially the death of a young person
—
Most of us feel that the natural order has been upset somehow.
Facing the pain of loss,