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If God Is Good, Why Is the World So Bad? by Benjamin Blech Simcha

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If God Is Good, Why Is the World So Bad? by Benjamin Blech Simcha Books If God is Good, God is not in control of the world, and sion that all of his proposals stem from Why is the World So Bad? that they suffer because God lacks the the Rav’s theology. By Benjamin Blech power to prevent it. The primary dissonance between Simcha Press Rabbi Blech opens with an anec- Rabbi Blech’s approach and that con- Florida, 2003 dote demonstrating that Kushner’s view veyed by the Rav is that Rabbi Blech is 250 pages is not only in contradiction to tradition- not at all hesitant to offer confident the- Reviewed by Shalom Carmy al religion, which is pretty obvious, but ological explanations for good and bad that it is therapeutically inadequate too. occurrences. Thus he writes: A woman, who had first been comfort- And how can we know whether our ed by Kushner’s assurance that her own suffering is divine punishment or child’s death was not punishment, now heavenly warning? When God intervenes, complains that the book gives her night- when He is sending you a message, you mares: “I now have two healthy chil- will know it. How? There is one sure way dren. We are so happy. But any minute to tell—God is very specific and leaves no now I expect something terrible to hap- doubt about His meaning if you merely pen. If God doesn’t run the world like give it a little thought. this book says….” And her voice cracks. Many of Rabbi Blech’s stories This woman, Rabbi Blech says, needs about unmistakable Divine communica- assurance. To be sure, Rabbi Blech can- tions involve numerical coincidences: a not assure her that her surviving chil- winning lottery ticket for exactly the dren will continue to thrive. But he can cost of a grandson’s Bar Mitzvah; hitting try to assure his audience that whatever the jackpot at a Polish casino on a happens is indeed the will of a benevo- Saturday night for a sum almost equiva- In my Jewish Perspectives on the lent deity. lent to the contribution made that Experience of Suffering, I wrote that The book before us consists of an morning in shul. In the very last chap- those who place truth over happiness eclectic collection of explanations and ter, Rabbi Blech reveals a secret doctrine often get both, while those who choose talking points on behalf of traditional received from a saintly mystic of Tzefat, happiness over truth are liable to get Jewish belief. Whether one finds the according to which the Holocaust and neither. Yet, in thinking about the suf- presentation convincing or not, and the establishment of the State of Israel fering that is a ubiquitous feature of this whether or not one agrees with the can be deduced by counting verse num- world, we all seek a belief that is not shape of Jewish theology that emerges bers in the Torah. only true, but also consoles; for many, from it, Rabbi Blech must be congratu- No doubt Rabbi Blech is correct the desire for consolation takes prece- lated for withstanding the temptation to when he says that God is present in Las dence over all else. tone down Orthodox belief in order to It is to the latter group that Rabbi Vegas and Atlantic City and not only in Blech addresses this book. These are the please his popular audience. Rabbi synagogues and houses of study. Yet I same people who bought, and read, Blech subscribes to the fundamental must confess that God seems to com- Harold Kushner’s When Bad Things idea developed by Rabbi Joseph B. municate with many of us more Happen to Good People. Kushner sug- Soloveitchik, according to which ambiguously. To understand how I have gested that people who are troubled by Judaism is more interested in how peo- failed to pursue the right relationship the idea that God is in control of the ple respond to suffering than in their with God, by behaving with disobedi- world, and that their suffering is due to theories of suffering. Unlike many rab- ence, indolence and coolness, and how I their sins or to Divine indifference, bis who seize upon the slightest provo- might repent and renew the relation- could find comfort in the notion that cation to attach their musings to the ship, like the parallel situation when one Rav’s name, Rabbi Blech never men- turns away from sins toward other tions him, though at least one anecdote human beings, seems to require a differ- Professor Carmy teaches at Yeshiva University comes directly from Halakhic Man. ent kind of deciphering than that of and is editor of Tradition. Thus he avoids creating the misimpres- Rabbi Blech’s cryptograms. 82 JEWISH ACTION Fall 5767/2006 Belief in reward and punishment memories of yesterday or hope for after we’ve opened our eyes to the many after death is, of course, a fundamental tomorrow. ways in which we’ve come to realize that tenet of Judaism. Most of us, from time I have questioned the self-pro- there may be answers or at least partial to time, take comfort from the convic- claimed ease with which Rabbi Blech answers to the problems that perplex tion that what is disordered and unjust serves up reasons and explanations for us.” in this world will be remedied beyond suffering. For me, the day-to-day experi- For me, the insight that we ought the grave. (Of course, religious people ence of repentance is more like the not to classify ourselves too easily as also contemplate with fear and trem- repair of an intimate personal relation- either saints or evildoers is fundamental. bling the prospect of giving an account ship, where it is not always superficially It should come not at the end of our of their commissions and omissions.) evident what, if anything, is deficient, study, but at the beginning. It is because Rabbi Blech attempts to bolster our than it is like a crime exposed. Hence it we do not know ourselves as God confidence in future life by pointing to is natural that the signs and lessons of knows us and loves us that we must be the scientific evidence of individuals suffering are more ambiguous, demand- so attentive to His discipline. It is who, after resuscitation, have returned ing strenuous spiritual effort on the part because our actions and attitudes, with to tell us what the afterlife is like. He of the sufferer. Perhaps Rabbi Blech and respect to our realization of good and also appeals to the principle of reincar- I are thinking of different types of peo- evil, are mysterious and opaque that nation, the belief that souls return to ple or different spiritual biographies. God’s address to us is not always very earth garbed in other people’s bodies From Rabbi Blech’s perspective, specific and demands more than a little (which is far from universal in main- the difference between us is captured in thought and response. When Kushner’s book was all the rage, the Christian the- WHETHER OR NOT ONE AGREES WITH THE SHAPE OF ologian Stanley Hauerwas commented JEWISH THEOLOGY THAT EMERGES FROM THE BOOK, that Kushner, dropping traditional belief RABBI BLECH MUST BE CONGRATULATED FOR WITHSTANDING THE in God’s power, had also omitted God’s TEMPTATION TO TONE DOWN ORTHODOX BELIEF IN ORDER TO love. It seems to me that Rabbi Blech, PLEASE HIS POPULAR AUDIENCE. recovering belief in God’s power, has not yet recuperated the ultimate drama stream Jewish thought, and not to be his remarks on Rav Yannai’s statement of God’s love, focusing on the ways in confused with resurrection of the dead) in Avot 4: “It is not in our hands to which our relationship to God resem- to explain undeserved suffering. Again, grasp why the wicked are at ease or why bles an intimate personal relationship, my own efforts, and those of people like the righteous suffer.” Rabbi Blech fol- with all its heartrending ambiguity. me, to come closer to God, do not lows the view among the commentators Only within the framework of that make so much of these speculations. that Rav Yannai refers to our inability to insight can we attempt to formulate and At other times, Rabbi Blech spec- understand the ways of Divine gover- distill, with the help of traditional cate- ulates freely about how much people nance. Now the Talmud (Shabbat 114a) gories, specific lessons that we can learn actually suffer. He writes: tells us that Rav Yannai instructed his from suffering and adversity. When an infant dies, it cannot be sons not to bury him in white, symbol- One last caveat: Rabbi Blech is a said that he has suffered much. His tiny izing saintliness, or in black, signifying polished and personable veteran of the life was so pitifully short that he was wickedness. Rabbi Blech brilliantly con- pulpit and the lecture circuit. As the almost certainly unaware of either his life nects this story with Rav Yannai’s teach- book jacket proclaims, he has shared his or his death. Our problem is not with his ing in Avot: He “wasn’t about to pro- ideas onstage with Oprah and other tel- pain, but with his purpose. nounce himself totally righteous. He evision personalities. It is not surprising It is a great pity that, in this case, knew he wasn’t perfect. And for that that, in his hands, the ideas and insights pertaining very much to this world, reason, he wasn’t going to make such a and phrases that comprise this book are Rabbi Blech offers no empirical data.
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