[Avodah] Starving children juxtaposed with a picture of the first Beracha of Bentching

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Marty Bluke <marty.bluke at gmail.com>
Subject: Starving  children juxtaposed with a picture of the first Beracha 
of Bentching

This  photo 
(_http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CI2uCSW0tXs/UTNM6oQUasI/AAAAAAAAAFk/KDZnlMoRwHs/s400/Untitled.png_ 
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CI2uCSW0tXs/UTNM6oQUasI/AAAAAAAAAFk/KDZnlMoRwHs/s400/Untitled.png) )
was  shared around Facebook last week, juxtaposing the first beracha of
Bentching  (which states that Hashem "gives food to all flesh, for His
kindness is  everlasting") with starving children somewhere in Africa. How
do we deal with  the obvious contradiction? Similarly how do we explain what
we say in Ashrei  every day "poseach es yadecha umasbea lol chai ratzon" in
the face of  starvation?

 
>>>>>
 
There is more than enough food in the world to feed every hungry child, and 
 there is also knowledge in the world of how to grow crops even in arid 
places  under adverse circumstances (the Israelis are masters at this).  So 
Hashem  has provided both the food and the human intelligence to produce more  
food.
 
The reason children are starving in Africa is that human beings, using  
their own bechirah, have deliberately created the conditions in which  children 
starve.  There are evil economic arrangements, like totalitarian  
Communism, which result in entire countries, like North Korea and Mugabe's  Zimbabwe 
(or the old USSR under Stalin), starving for decades.   Similarly, 
socialism, with its attendant political corruption and massive  inefficiencies, 
causes mass hunger in many countries.  
 
Then there are political and military realities, primarily wars, civil  
wars, guerilla wars, terrorism -- warfare being the second most  common 
producer of starving children.  
 
Sometimes adverse weather causes local food shortages, and when western  
countries step in and try to deliver food, local corrupt governments or local  
gangs either steal the food or for political reasons, prevent it from being 
 distributed.
 
But in every case, it is evil human actions that prevent food from reaching 
 starving children.  Hashem has provided enough food to feed everyone.
 
My daughter's professor of Environmental Science told the class that there  
are too many people in the world -- the current world population is  
unsustainable -- and that plagues, droughts, tsunamis, earthquakes and  hurricanes 
are Mother Nature's way of bringing the world population into  sustainable 
balance, and humans should not take steps to thwart Nature.   According to 
this professor, vaccinations, antibiotics, food aid in  drought-stricken 
areas, and pretty much all efforts to ameliorate human  suffering, are Bad for 
the Planet.  So as you can see, human evil is  everywhere, even in the 
seemingly benevolent form of a simple professor in a  Florida college.  Professors 
may be the most evil people of all, because  they use their G-d-given 
brains and power of speech to justify and  rationalize evil.  I conclude that 
most human suffering is caused by  the evil that lurks in the heart of man.
 

--Toby  Katz
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