“These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai” (Leviticus 27:34).
This verse is at the end of Chapter 7 of Leviticus, the third book of the Torah or Old Testament. It follows a list of commandments God gave to Moses and concerns vows and offerings given to God. (Leviticus means “of the Levites,” one of the tribes of Israel, says the website Bible Study Tools.)
For Lizzy Savetsky, a New York City-based Jewish activist and influencer, this chapter of Leviticus is a reminder that God is in control — and that things happen for a reason.
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“I was recently reading a portion of the Torah, Leviticus, where it lists a lot of really harsh curses from God if we don’t follow God’s path — if we don’t trust God,” she told Fox News Digital via email.
These verses resonated with her, she said, as she’s experienced a wide variety of emotions over the last nine months, since the terror attacks against Israel – and has learned important lessons about what she can control and what is left up to God.
“Imagine a circle: In one circle we have all the things that we can control, everything that we actually have the ability to control,” she said.
Outside this proverbial circle, Savetsky said, is where trust lies — “true trust that lies in God because we have no control.”
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Ever since the terror attacks by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, Savetsky has found herself “in a never-ending cycle of frustration, of grief, of anger,” she said.
“I realized that all of the things that are driving me absolutely mad are outside of that circle, in the area I can’t control,” she said. “That means that I’m not handing over my trust to God.”
It has been frustrating, Savetsky said, seeing people she previously admired and followed on social media posting things critical of Israel “without any real knowledge of the region and its history.”
“I’ve been in so much grief over seeing the video recently released by the parents of an American citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, of his abduction from the Nova Festival with two other civilians,” she said, adding that she still thinks about the hostages held in Gaza every day.
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Sinct Oct. 7, the Israel-Hamas war has continued to rage on abroad — and mass student protests against Israel have caused concerns at home, as Fox News Digital has reported.
“It’s not in my control,” said Savetsky, “and I have been so unbelievably angry by the silence, by the lies, by the demonization — but it’s also out of my control.”
Yet there is a part she can control, she said. “I’m waking up and I’m doing it every day,” she said.
“I have to trust that all of these things are leading us to something.”
“As committed as I say I am to my Jewish life, to my spiritual life, how can I be in so much frustration, anger and grief about all of these things that are outside my sphere of control?” asked Savetsky.
These feelings, she said, “are nothing but a reflection of my lack of trust in God.”
“I have to trust that all of these things are leading us to something,” she said.
In the world today, Savetsky said, many things simply do not make sense.
“There’s no logic to the amount of hate and silence in the world,” she said.
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“I simply have to let it go.”
She added, “Otherwise I’m just going to run myself into the ground seeking control over that which is only in God’s hands.”
