A rabbi on being angry with God

150 years before the holocaust, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev taught that God can be found even in anger.

On Yom Kippur, a tailor sought forgiveness from the great rabbi for having talked disrespectfully to God. The tailor told him:

“I declared to God: you wish for me to repent of my sins, but I have committed only minor offenses. But you O LORD have committed grievous sins: You have taken babies from their mothers and mothers from their babies. Let’s call it even: if you will forgive me, I will forgive you."

Said the Rabbi, “Why did you let God off so easily? With that argument, you could have forced him to redeem all of Israel.”

(Adapted from documentary on Hasidism in America, and The Genesis of Justice by Alan M. Dershowitz)