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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Marty Bluke <marty.bluke@gmail.com><BR>Subject: Starving
children juxtaposed with a picture of the first Beracha of Bentching<BR><BR>This
photo (<A
href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CI2uCSW0tXs/UTNM6oQUasI/AAAAAAAAAFk/KDZnlMoRwHs/s400/Untitled.png">http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CI2uCSW0tXs/UTNM6oQUasI/AAAAAAAAAFk/KDZnlMoRwHs/s400/Untitled.png</A>)<BR>was
shared around Facebook last week, juxtaposing the first beracha of<BR>Bentching
(which states that Hashem "gives food to all flesh, for His<BR>kindness is
everlasting") with starving children somewhere in Africa. How<BR>do we deal with
the obvious contradiction? Similarly how do we explain what<BR>we say in Ashrei
every day "poseach es yadecha umasbea lol chai ratzon" in<BR>the face of
starvation?</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
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<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Then there are political and military realities, primarily wars, civil
wars, guerilla wars, terrorism -- warfare being the second most
common producer of starving children. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But in every case, it is evil human actions that prevent food from reaching
starving children. Hashem has provided enough food to feed everyone.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT><BR><FONT color=#0000ff><STRONG>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 size=2 face=Arial
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