IS GOD UNFAIR?

THE CHALLENGE OF EVIL

Compiled by Rabbi Ron Isaacs

Student Sourcebook

Session 1

  1. EVIL: THE PROBLEM

Every time we hear the radio, watch television or read the newspaper we come face to face with the problem of evil. We are constantly running into items such as these:

Tornado Sweeps ThroughSixteen Miners Trapped

Tiny Southwestern TownAs Explosion Rips Mine

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Twenty-seven Killed;Rescuers Digging for

Tornado Sweeps throughSixteen Miners Trapped

Tiny Southwestern TownAs Explosion Rips Mine

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Twenty-seven killed;Rescuers Digging for

Property Losses HighMen in Wrecked Shaft

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2 Guards Shot Down asSchool Children killed

Bandits hit City Bankby Large Trailer Truck

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Robbers Kill GuardsRunaway Vehicle Hits

Who Protect PayrollYoungsters at Recess

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Plane Crash Kills 74;Vessel Strikes Iceberg;

Pilot Misjudges SpeedHope Gone for Survivors

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Four Survivors Tell108 Passengers and Crew

Tale of Air TragedyDie in North Atlantic

Events like these are extremely distressing, but they are staggering when they involve our own relatives or friends. Such events undoubtedly have caused us to wonder why such terrible things have to happen. And this in turn, raises the whole question of why innocent people sometimes suffer.

Why do you think things like those in the above headlines happen? Why would God who is supposedly all good and all powerful allow them to happen? Is God responsible for such evil? Why would God want innocent people to die? Isn’t it true that God rewards good people and punishes evil ones?

These questions are difficult to answer, and for religious people. In particular, they raise many serious questions. Let’s begin by exploring what the Bible has to say about all of this.

  1. THE BIBLE AND EVIL

The ancient Hebrews had a far more difficult task answering the questions about evil than did the people in neighboring lands. Among the Greeks and Romans, the responsibility for evil was laid upon many different Gods. No Roman or Greek God was considered wholly just or righteous, and any one of them for any reason could decide to bring disaster upon a person. In the case of the Persians, evil was regarded as the work of Ahriman, the God of darkness and evil. Others believed that because there was evil in the world the likelihood was that there was no God. Such a belief was called atheism.

For the Biblical Jew none of these solutions was possible. The idea that there might be a separate God of evil was out of the question. The Bible said: “Here O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is One.” (Deut. 6::4) Nor in view of the covenant between God and Israel could the ancient Israelites accept the idea that God was neither good nor just. King David in Psalm 145:17 declared: “The Lord is righteous in all his ways.”

The authors of the Bible concluded that evil could originate from only one source, and that source was God. Typical are these two Biblical observations:

“…Shall evil befall a city and the Lord not have caused it (Amos 3:6)

“…Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive

Evil?” (Job 2:10)

Once the authors of the Bible acknowledged that both evil and good come from God, they were forced to ask still another question: Why does God see fit to bring about all the troubles the beset mankind?

  1. EVIL, THE RESULT OF WICKEDNESS

One current theme that runs through the whole Bible is that evil and misfortune are the consequences of wickedness. God destroyed the world during the time of Noah because the people were wicked and evil. God sent a plaque upon the Israelites after they built the golden calf. God tells the Israelites in the Book of Deuteronomy (28:15z) that if they do not listen to His commandments they will be cursed with fever, drought and all kinds of diseases. Finally*, King David in Psalm 92 states that righteous people will flourish like the palm trees, whereas the wicked will be destroyed forever.

Do you think that good people are always rewarded by God and bad people punished by God? Why or why not?

  1. HAVE THE BIBLICAL PROPHECIES REGARDING EVIL COME TRUE?

To some extent, wickedness and doing evil does lead to misfortune and suffering. A criminal may pay for his crime in many ways. If he is caught, he will spend a portion of his life behind bars. And yet, there are many innocent people today who suffer terribly from disease and other hardships. And there are people we may know who are less than righteous and seem to live happy and healthy lives.

Even the Bible recognized the fact that the wicked were not always punished for their sins. The prophet Jeremiah (12:1) asks: “Why do the wicked prosper?” And so the question still remains unanswered until today.

  1. EVIL IN THE TALMUD

The Talmud records many responses to the question of why there is evil

In this world. Look at this story and decide what your conclusions would be regarding God’s justice and r ole with evil.

Elisha ben Abuyah once saw a young man climb a tree in response to his father’s request to bring down some birds. Before removing the young from the nest, the young man released the mother bird, for the Bible says that such conduct would insure “length of days.” (Deut. 22:7) Climbing down, the young man lost his footing, fell and was killed.

  1. EVIL IN THE PRAYERBOOK

Look at the following prayer and comment on God’s role in creating evil.

“Praised are You, God, who creates light and darkness,

You create all things.”

Session II

Many Jews believe that God is just, all powerful and all good. If this is true, why is there evil in the world? Why would God not have prevented the Holocaust from occurring? Why there are righteous people whose lot is bad and why are there wicked people whose lot is good?

The following are ten Jewish responses to this age old problem of God and evil:

  1. We cannot understand God’s ways: Job was a righteous man,

And suffered beyond belief, losing everything that he once possessed, including members of his family. The Book of Job concludes that it is

Impossible for humans to understand the ways of God.

  1. Reward and punishment are meted out in the afterlife. The Book of Daniel promises both reward and punishment in the afterlife.
  1. Suffering has a purpose. Suffering has been explained as being a form of discipline. It is a test or challenge to see how much faith you really have in God.
  1. Evil is a hidden blessing. Whatever God does, he does for the best.
  1. God suffers along with humanity. Many legends written about the Exodus from Egypt depict God as suffering with the Israelites as they struggled for freedom. Because God gave humans freedom of choice and free will, he cannot interfere with events in history as they unfold.
  1. Evil results from human failure. God did not cause the Holocaust. It was people who caused the Holocaust.
  1. Good people are made to suffer for the wicked. Righteous and good people have the moral capacity to interpret suffering constructively.
  1. We shouldn’t ask the question in the first plane. There are some ways of God which are not for people to understand.
  1. Evil is a necessary contrast with goodness. If there was no such thing as evil. There would be no such thing as goodness.
  1. God is all powerful but not all good, or God is all good but He is not all powerful.

JEWISH RESPONSE TO EVIL

When a Jew loses a loved one, he rends his garment and says: “Blessed is You O God, You are the true Judge.” What is your reaction to this blessing? Why would Jewish law require such a blessing to be said by a mourner?

In addition, the mourner recites the Kaddish prayer, which basically is a prayer which magnifies the Name of God? Why is such a prayer which magnifies the Name of God? Why is such a prayer required to be recited by a mourner? Why is there no reference to death or evil in the Kaddish prayers?

SOME OTHER RESPONSES TO EVIL

  1. We must learn to control ourselves,. Many of the b lights of the world are caused by people like us: anger, arrogance, brutality, carelessness, cheating, jealousy, selfishness, slander, unfaithfulness.
  1. We must turn evil and tragedy into a redemption event. For events, if a child is killed by a drunken driver, that child’s family sought to work toward legislation which would help more drunken drivers off the streets.
  1. Harold Kushner had these answers which he wrote after losing his young son Aaron to a deadly disease: