[Avodah] who is going to Gehenim

[SBA]

From: "Joseph C. Kaplan" 
"The situation in Japan (which has very limited negative impact on Jews) may
be HaShem's way of waking people up to the fact that Iran's going nuclear
can no longer be view with such apathy." 

It may be.  ...We can have faith because we DON'T know why God does things.
Thus, if we think something is unjust (like the death of thousands of
apparently innocent Japanese), we can say that we don't know why it happened
and therefore we cannot judge -- there has to be a good reason.  That's what
belief in God and faith are about  But if we say we do know why it happened
-- e.g., as a wake-up call to Iran's nuclear capabilities -- then it's
legitimate to challenge God and ask: "is that just to kill innocent people
to give the world a message?; hashofet kal ha'aretz lo ya'aseh mishpat?"
It's much better that we don't know and it's a grave error to guess.
=========

A friend just sent me a scan of Brochos  59a.

The gemara gives the reason for earthquakes  (and tsunami) happening - when
Hashem remembers His children suffering amongst the Umos Haolom, he is
"morid shtei dimaos leyam hagadol - vekolo nishma misof haolom v'ad sofo"

So may be quote this gemara when discussing earthquakes??

SBA