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February 26, 2010
Why do people suffer?
The desire for justice expresses our compassion.
RABBI SHMUEL YESHAYAHU
I don’t see how people could look at all the pain and suffering in this world and still try to believe, or convince others to believe, that G-d is good. Yes, there are many wonderful things in this world, but when we see such devastation like in Haiti after the earthquake, the pleasures in this world just don’t seem to compare to the suffering.
You should know that you’re in good company. Many great people, including Abraham and Moses, asked questions of a similar nature.
Abraham our forefather, and a great believer, pleaded with G-d not to destroy the city of Sodom. He asked G-d: “The Judge of all earth doesn’t do justice?” (Genesis 18:25)
About Moses it is told (Tractate Menachot 29b) that he saw in the future that Rabbi Akiva (a rabbi quoted in the Talmud) would be tortured terribly by the Romans following the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. He asked: “Zot Torah v’zot schara?” “This is the Torah and this is the reward?” (We actually recite this line on Yom Kippur.)
Abraham and Moses continued to serve G-d as before but, of course, that isn’t the case for everyone. Elisha ben Avuya, a great talmudic sage, distanced himself from G-d when he perceived a lack of justice. In one story (Midrash Rabbath Ruth 6:4 and Tractate Kiddushin 39b), he saw one man climb a tree and take a mother bird with the eggs and climb down safely and another man perform the mitzvah of shiluach haken (scaring away the mother bird before taking the egg) properly, climb back down, get bitten by a snake and die. It says in the Torah that the reward for doing this mitzvah is long days (Deuteronomy 22:7); ben Avuya could not come to terms with what he saw.
It is also told that ben Avuya saw that after Rav Judah the Baker was tortured by the Romans, a dog held the man’s tongue in his mouth. He thought: “If this is the reward of the tongue which toiled all its days in the Torah, how much more so the tongue which has not the knowledge and has not toiled!” His concluded that there is no justice in the world. (Midrash Rabbah Ruth 6:4)
Although it can be considered a religiously risky question, Judaism encourages us to ask how such unjust things can happen. The question stems from a desire for justice and it’s an expression of compassion. It is also the process of interacting with G-d.
But, at the same time, we must realize that we will never arrive at an answer because the question is the process of the finite (our minds) attempting to comprehend the infinite (G-d). Expecting to understand G-d’s motives would be like a baby being expected to understand why a doctor is hurting him with a needle while his mother stands by and watches. Also, understanding the reason behind earthly events would probably make us less compassionate. If we truly understood the reason that someone is suffering, we wouldn’t feel as badly about the person’s pain.
With Purim coming up, it’s interesting to mention that the question above ties into Megillat Esther, the book read twice on the holiday. It tells of a series of seemingly coincidental events. G-d is not mentioned in the story at all. Everything happened “within nature,” so to speak, and, in the end, we read about the miracle of the Jews being saved.
The nature of the miracle of Purim is actually symbolized by hamantashen, the traditional Purim cookies that contain a sweet filling. The dough on the outside of the hamantashen is plain and “natural.” The real flavor, the real miracle, is hidden inside.
Our day-to-day lives are very much like this as well. A lot happens that we don’t understand. We aren’t capable of seeing the full picture.
It is like the farmer who had a horse who ran away. A few days later, the horse came back with 20 new horses that he’d picked up in the wild. Then, another few days later, the man broke his leg riding one of the new wild horses. And, a few days after that, the government declared war and called up every able-bodied man to serve, which now didn’t include the farmer because of his broken leg. The farmer said, “Now I know that it was a good thing my horse ran away.”
From beginning of creation until today is one long story. The finite mind can’t comprehend the whole picture. Like Abraham and Moses, we should express our concern for the suffering we see, remember that claiming to have an explanation for the suffering is like claiming to have an infinite mind. So, we ask why. We don’t answer. And then we do everything we can to help.
Happy Purim!
Rabbi Shmuel Yeshayahu is head of the Ohel Ya’akov Community Kollel. He wrote this article with Deena Levenstein, a freelance writing living in Jerusalem. Her website is habitza.com.
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