Jewish Beliefs: Good & Evil
Sermon, June 22, 2007
Rabbi Bruce Kadden

One of the most challenging issues that we face as human beings is the problem of good and evil.  Why did God create a world with suffering?  To paraphrase Rabbi Harold Kushner, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” and conversely, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”

We human beings want things to make sense, we want to understand how the world works and we want there to be a reason for everything.  It is difficult to accept that maybe, just maybe, things sometimes just happen.

Judaism has struggled with these questions throughout its history, offering a variety of answers.  This evening, as I continue my series of summer sermons on Jewish beliefs, I turn to examining good and evil.

The Torah warns that failure to observe the mitzvot, to follow the teachings of God, will result in Divine punishment.  “I will wreak misery upon you—consumption and fear, which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish,” God warns.  “You shall sow your see to no purpose, for your enemies shall eat it…. You shall be routed by your enemies and your foes shall dominate you.” (Leviticus 26:16-18)  Indeed, there are many examples of God punishing the people, from the flood of Genesis to this week’s portion, where God sends serpents against the people for continuing to complain about the lack of food and water in the wilderness.

Based on this pattern, many people mistakenly conclude that all suffering must be the result of misdeeds.  But the Bible refutes this conclusion, most clearly in this passage where God tells the prophet Elijah to go and stand on the mountain of God.  “And behold, God passes and a great strong wind split mountains and shattered rocks before God; God was not in the wind.  And after the wins an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake.  And after the earthquake fire, but God was not in the fire.  And after the fire a still, small voice.” (I Kings 19:9-13) 

We often refer to earthquakes and tornados and floods as “acts of God” but this text reminds us that it may not always be the case.   In fact, a passage from the beginning of the Talmud makes this point.  “If a person sees that painful sufferings visit him, let him examine his conduct…. If he examines and finds nothing, let him attribute it to the neglect of the study of the Torah… If he did attribute it thusly, and still did not find the cause, he should know that these are chastisements of love.”  (B’rachot 5a)

For the rabbis, suffering could be the result of punishment for misdeeds or for lack of Torah study.  But it also could be, the rabbis believed, that God, on occasion, would “bring suffering upon the righteous in order that they may inherit the world to come” (Kiddushin 40b).  They are suffering now so that they would receive a greater reward later.

Now, most of us, I think, find this theology problematic if not offensive.  But my point is that the rabbis recognized that suffering was not always due to one’s actions.  The same point is made in the book of Job, a biblical masterpiece which challenges the traditional approach to suffering and Divine punishment. 

Job was a “blameless and upright” man who “feared God and shunned evil.”  He had a large family and was quite prosperous until he found himself the victim of a showdown between Satan and God.  Now, in Jewish tradition, Satan is an angel who challenges God from time to time.

Satan basically says to God that if Job were truly tested he would blaspheme God.  So God says, go ahead and test him, do anything to him but take his life.  And Satan does just about everything he can to punish Job, destroying his family and possessions and afflicting his body.  Job curses the day he was born, but refuses to curse God.  His three so-called friends try to comfort him, suggesting that the afflictions must be punishment for something he has done. 

Job steadfastly denies this possibility and proclaims his innocence.  God finally repudiates the argument of the friends but also indicates to Job that he, as a mortal, cannot know the ways of the world.  In others words, suffering is –at least sometimes—not a punishment for our sins, but we are not always able to understand why we suffer.

This answer remains the best and most common traditional answer to suffering:  we are simply not able to understand why.  Why does God allow so much pain and suffering in the world?  Why did God permit six million Jews to die in the Holocaust?  Why do good people suffer?

For most of us, though, this is not an adequate answer.  The pain and suffering are overwhelming, and we have to believe that if God could do something about it, God would. 

Which brings us to the answer offered most powerfully by Rabbi Harold Kushner.  When asked why he could not believe that God took his son’s life so that he would be a more sensitive rabbi and would write a book which would help so many people deal with death and suffering, Rabbi Kushner responded:  “If a person took the life of a child to make other people more sensitive, he would be put I prison.  Why should we treat God differently?”

Suffering, whether it is caused by human beings or diseases or natural disasters has no meaning when it occurs, according to Rabbi Kushner; God does not cause it and cannot prevent it from happening.  “We have the power to give meaning to the tragic events in our lives by the way we respond to them,” he concludes.

Elie Wiesel offers the same conclusion.  “Suffering confers neither privileges nor rights; it all depends on how one uses it…. In the final analysis it is not given to us to bring suffering to an end…but we can humanize it.”  We cannot prevent suffering from occurring, but we can respond to it with compassion and caring and support and love. 

God calls upon us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, to free the captive and redeem the oppressed.  The amount of pain and suffering and evil in the world sometimes seems overwhelming; we are not responsible for ending it, but we are required to do our part to reduce it.  May we be inspired to respond to pain and suffering with compassion and caring, bringing hope where there is despair. 

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