Coping with Tragedy
Human nature impels us to ask why there is tragedy. Torah teaches us to ask what we should do to prevent tragedy and heal those who have suffered.
A Modern Day Curse
This week’s parsha eerily begins with the words: “See I place before you a blessing and a curse.”
As we go to print, the world is once again witness to a colossal tragedy, the magnitude of which has yet to be revealed. Hundreds, if not thousands of people; have perished. Hundreds of thousands of people have been made homeless and jobless. Millions of people’s lives have been adversely affected.
And unlike 9/11, we cannot put the entire blame on human choices. To be sure, we can always argue that if we had been better prepared etc. the tragedy would not have been so enormous. Nevertheless, one must come to the inevitable conclusion that the hurricane itself, and a significant portion of the destruction it wreaked, could not have been prevented by human intervention.
It is only natural for us to hear people raising the perennial question, why? Why does G-d allow such misfortune to happen? And even though the same question can be asked any time there is even minimal and localized suffering, it is human nature that moves people to raise the question specifically where the tragedy is of monumental proportions, such as the tragedy in the South East of our country.
Unsatisfying and Misguided Explanations
As a result of this tragedy and the gnawing question it engendered, we are going to hear a chorus of religious leaders saying one thing or another that goes against basic Jewish belief and, in the final analysis, does not really answer any question. It just makes the questioner feel comfortable with their preconceived ideas of what their G-d must look like. It is an exercise in creating G-d in our image, rather than trying to reflect the Divine within ourselves. Instead of recognizing the utterly transcendent nature of G-d, many are desperate to fit G-d into their mold.
I am referring to the two extreme reactions:
On the one hand, we hear fundamentalists of all religions speaking of how this, and other tragedies, are a punishment for the sins of the people.
From the opposite side of the religious spectrum, however, we frequently hear the argument that G-d is not omnipotent; He cannot control the events of the world.
While the second view contradicts everything we know in our tradition about G-d and is theologically and logically flawed, the first view is arrogant, demeaning to G-d, and foolish.
It is arrogant because it assumes that we understand G-d’s ways.
It is demeaning because it turns G-d into a merciless tyrant. No loving father would ever punish his children for an infraction of the rules, the way G-d has “punished” His children.
It is also foolish, because it doesn’t really answer the question, If G-d is punishing the wicked, why does He allow utterly innocent people to be hurt?
Ask: What and What Should We Do, not Why?
The only valid approach, from the perspective of the Torah, is that while we can occasionally understand what G-d does, we cannot possibly fathom why He does it. We can and must also try to understand what our course of action should be when we confront adversity. We cannot ever fully grasp G-d’s ways.
To be sure, some of the suffering in our world is a result of someone’s sins; just as if one cuts their finger blood will flow. Actions have consequences. Evil begets evil and good begets good. Also, there are crimes so heinous that one would not be disturbed at the notion that G-d has punished the perpetrators of those crimes. But this is a far cry from the suggestion that all suffering is a form of punishment.
Punishment for Sin is Inexplicable
Indeed, the concept of punishment for sins does not explain: a) the magnitude of suffering; b) why innocent people suffer along with the guilty; c) why G-d cannot deal with our sins in a different, “more humane,” way.
Furthermore, by trying to understand G-d’s ways, it takes away our sense of pain and outrage when others suffer. To the same extent that G-d does not want us doubt His existence and role in our lives, He does not want us to sit back and accept the evil and pain that exists in our world in the name of G-d.
If we were to fully grasp why there is suffering, it would make us insensitive to the suffering.
What we do know about our world and the purpose of its existence is that G-d wanted an imperfect world to be made perfect by our choices and actions.
G-d Does Not Need Us to be His Defense Lawyers
To paraphrase the opening verses of this week’s parsha:
G-d placed before us a world that possesses both incredible blessing and horrendous curses, and commands us to transform those curses into blessings.
Nowhere, have we been told to justify evil and suffering and serve as G-d’s defense lawyers. G-d does want us to fight evil and allay suffering and pain, even as we continue to have faith in Him and plead with Him to bring an end to the exile and all the pain that goes along with it, and usher in the time when the fruit of our labor will become evident for the entire world – with the coming of Moshiach and the imminent redemption.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Rei by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
