You Make Strangers

Rachel Naomi Remen interviewed a Holocaust survivor, Yitzchak, at a retreat for people with cancer for her book "Kitchen Table Wisdom." Yitzchak was a brilliant physicist who was more comfortable using his mind than expressing his feelings. Initially uncomfortable being vulnerable with a group of strangers, he complained about all the "huggy-huggy stuff" at the retreat. Yitzchak tells Rachel at their last meeting that he took up the matter with God and asked God what this retreat was about. Rachel wanted to know what God said in response to Yitzchak.

"…I say to Him, 'God is it okay to luff strangers?' And God says to me, 'Yitzchak, vat is dis strangers? You make strangers. I don't make strangers.'"

To Yitzchak, the fellow cancer sufferers were strangers. To God, no one is a stranger.