To the contrary; rather than eliminate angst, relationships often serve to increase it. Yet this is precisely part of the counter-intuitive brilliance of Torah living. Much of Jewish life, from the tensions of Avraham, Sarah, and Hagar down centuries later to the conflicts between David HaMelech and his wives and children, is about struggling with our relationships and becoming complete through that process of growth – “v’tuchal.”
Let’s revisit our earlier questions: Why are we here? What are we doing? Where are we going? What’s the point of it all?
The answer is that the questions themselves no longer disturb us when we live in the realm of a passionate and loving engagement with the Divine, maintaining, working, and growing through the sometimes turbulent but always fully alive relationship “im Elokim v’im Anashim” – “with God and with man.”
{This essay was written liylu nishmas his mother, Chaya Trenk, a”h, who passed away this past year. She was a caring, creative, and loving soul, who gave all of herself to her family.}