Jewish tradition offers a way of facing up to the scandal of human frailty and morality. COVID-19 has brought this reality into stark relief in recent months, and so the consciousness that there is no novelty in tragedy may provide a degree of comfort and perspective, even in trying times. Scholar of the Ancient Near East Kristine Henriksen Garroway, Ph.D. offers a way to reach across the centuries and find the most acute, the most contemporary human reality.