[Avodah] God of Love, vs. Just God

[David Riceman]

RMYG:

<<This is in the context of the question I was addressing, "How can a Loving

God do ___(many terrible things)_____ to me?" My answer to the gentleman, in
a nutshell, was that although Hashem loves us and has mercy on us, he is not
a Loving God, which, I think, is a Christian conceit, but a Just God. As
humans we suffer from not having the ability to scan the entire scope of the
human experience so as to understand the justness of what Hashem does, but
He is always just, our perceptions notwithstanding.>>

"Ein menahamim es ha'adam b'sha'ah shemeiso mutal l'fanav".  If the gentleman was really in distress, it may not have been the best time for this discussion.

The classification of an event as mercy or justice is not an objective one, but a subjective one.  As you correctly note, it can change depending on how wide your perspective is.  My experience is that wider perspective makes events seem more like mercy.  As evidence I cite the above ma'amar Hazal; distress narrows a person's horizons, making him less able to take the wider perspective which may make him realize that something was really good, and thus less able to accept nehamah.

David Riceman