[Avodah] Why bad things happen to good people

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 03:50:07PM -0400, Michael Makovi wrote:
: (No, I am not using the title of Kushner's book; that was *When* Bad
: Things Happen to Good People)

Since my blog is a collection of chiddushei Torah on philosophical and
mussar themes, I obviously hit this one a number of times. See the
category <http://www.aishdas.org/asp/category/theodicy> (6 posts, some
machashavah, some mussar on issues like tragedies during simchas Adar).

I am most proud of the oldest entry "The Four Sons Confront Tragedy".

The chakham asks "mah ha'eidus vehachuqim...". RYBS style, he realizes the
primary Jewish question isn't "Why?" but "How am I supposed to respond?"
For him, the tragic is a nisayon to figure out how to overcome.

The rasha gets yissurim; a wake up call.

The tam is told "why?" at the seider. He's the one who would get
yissurim shel ahavah. He is called upon to turn to G-d in
his troubles.

The she'eino yodei'ah lish'ol isn't ready for the question. He is the
poor person who is poor because had he been rich, he would have been
enticed off the derekh.

Real people are blends of all four, and so are their tzaros.

We are told in the beginning of Iyov that his challenges were those
of the chakham and tam. He got yissurim because he got as far as he
could in avodas Hashem as an ashir, and needed to learn how to respond
in oppression.

At least, that's how I read the satan's words, given that his job is
lesatein, not simply to be evil.


But in truth, the real answer is that given at the end of Iyov -- how can
we be presumptuous enough to think you can understand the answer? Rather
(to return to Qol Dodi Dofeiq), we are called upon to struggle with the
question, lo aleinu ligmor, velo anu ben chorin libateil mimenah.

The question exists to be a question. Because by demanding an
explanation, we are relating our troubles to our relationship with
the Borei. (I also write about this in terms of getting angry at Him
over someone else's troubles, eg Avraham and Sodom or Moshe defending
BY, at <http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/10/angry-at-g-d.shtml>. A real
relationship will include arguments and anger; ask any married person. Kol
de'avad letav avad is only a noble attitude when it's my /own/ tzaros.)


As for your/RAK's solutions, I think there are fewer than 5:
: 1) We can only see Olam haZe, but not Olam haBa. When someone dies,
: perhaps he was needed more there than here, or perhaps he completed
: his mission on earth. Cf. the fifth answer below

: 3) Perhaps a certain innocent person isn't really innocent. Perhaps
: the mitzvah we crush under our heel is the most important of all. (I'd
: personally add that we say that the good suffer here and are rewarded
: later, and for the evil, it is vice versa.)

: 5) We cannot really know what is good and what is bad. He brings the
: story of Rabbi Akiva in the field (the inn had no room) where his
: donkey and rooster are eaten and his lamp goes out, and it turns out
: that because of this, the bandits didn't find him. Our perspective is
: lacking, and we cannot know the full story. Cf. the first answer
: above.

These are variants of the idea that you just can't know all the
facts. We don't know the don't know the person's sins, even if we did,
we wouldn't know their magnitude, and without knowing every possible
outcome nor can peer into olam haba, we don't really know the gemul.
"Then Hashem answered Iyov from the storm... Where were you when I
founded the earth? Tell me if you know understanding." (See peraqim
38-41, THE primary source on this subject.)

: 2) Man is part of a society, and part of the historical process. I
: will elaborate further on (this second point is what I really want to
: focus on in this email).

: 4) Often, we bring the evil upon ourselves, and have only ourselves to blame.

Both of these assume that HQBH won't always step in to insure the
outcome. (Assuming #4 is about my hurting myself, rather than sechar
ba'onesh -- that would seem not to require an answer.)

In #2, RAK is simply asserting that HP isn't total, sometimes (for some
people - usually, for others, less often) one's fate is subject to
hashgachah minis.

: This seems to tie into the fifth answer, that we can't really know
: what is truly good and what isn't. How could those in the Holocaust
: know that the state of Israel would be born from it? (Taking it for
: granted that this is a satisfactory answer to the Holocaust.)

Well, this is RBSO we're talking about. So even your question is
incredibly short of the mark. Of the infinitude of ways that He could
have given us a State, He chose this one. Why are you assuming that
the Shoah was a /necessary/ precondition for the Medinah? Perhaps His
reason was entirely something else.

...
: Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits, in his essay on Job, in Essential Essays,
: reprinted from one of his other books (I forget which), concludes that
: Sefer Iyov is teaching that sometimes, for the sake of God's
: "mishpat", which Rabbi Berkovits says is almost synonymous with
: "derech", He must do something that isn't strict justice (i.e. Job
: didn't deserve his suffering) for the sake of some overriding need of
: the world (G-d's derech, = mishpat).

I don't understand from this paragraph what REB's definition of "mishpat"
is, but his usage is at odds with the navi Mikhah's. After all, vehalakhta
bidrakhav (as in "derekh") isn't summarized as "la'asos mishpat". One
also needs "ahavas chessed vehatznei'ah lekhes im E-lokekha".

OTOH, in beis din, mishpat is pesharah first and only then does one try for
strict justice (din).

And I would acutally say the reverse -- strict justice is itself only
there when the need is. Olam chessed yibaneh. Din is only there when
it's the greater chessed. The parent who has to let their two yr old
fall a few times in order to learn how to walk independently.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 12th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        1 week and 5 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Hod sheb'Gevurah: What aspect of judgment
Fax: (270) 514-1507                  forces the "judge" into submission?