Home Home / Emunah and Bitachon - Issues of Faith a…

Outline

December 12, 1994

Emunah and Bitachon - Issues of Faith and Trust in the Face of Tragedy (1994)

Theodicy
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Outline

Catastrophics (2002)

Catastrophics (prepared for Hirt party 9/10/02 & Midtown 9/11 memorial). Catastrophes, both man-made and natural, have plagued mankind from the beginning of time. In my lifetime: Stalin’s Gulag, WWII, Khmer Rouge, Cambodia, etc. For us Jews: שואה – proportionately, WTC cataclysm would have resulted in 80+ million victims! Still, for us this WTC terror made us, a happy optimistic country, realize our vulnerability – hence, very significant for future of USA. Debate in NYC as to how to commemorate 9/11/01 WTC bombing – some: leave it in its devastation, everlasting mourning; others: mostly restore financial offices as sign of victory, defiance of terrorists. There’s more to this debate than participants know! Talmud – of two minds on reaction to catastrophe: זכר לחורבן, זכר למקדש – mourning or hope? Examples: laws promulgated זכר לחורבן – as in prohibition on instrumental music, unpainted slab on wall. Also, זכר למקדש – as in halakha requiring lulav to be waved only one day, but after destruction – seven days; זכר למקדש – כורך מצה ומרור כהלל; Amemar’s ruling that counting of Omer is only days, not weeks, because זכר למקדש – because all mitzvah of Omer = זכר למקדש, not דין תורה. The arguments, both Talmudic and contemporary, are reflections of deeper ambivalence in the universal human psyche in relating to catastrophes, whether natural or man-made, resulting in paradoxical reactions. On one hand: deep grief, mourning, defeat, despair – on the other: defiance, struggle, hope, healing, striving to overcome. So, in relating to death of a loved one or close relative – אבלות שמקורה בהתבדלות מחברת בני אדם – followed by ניחום אבלים and gradual reintegration into society. So, the Kaddish – always problematic: what is the relation of the text to death? Answer: both defeat and victory, despair and defiance, mourning and hope! Thus, the oldest version of the Kaddish, the קדיש דאתחדתא, which speaks of the banishment of idolatry, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple, an…
Theodicy

Article

Foreword to From the Depths I Have Called to You: Jewish Reflections on September 11th and Contemporary Terrorism (2002)

The traumatic events of September 11th have left an indelible mark on the psyche of the American people – and, indeed, on people throughout the civilized world. The horror of the senseless killing and the noxious religious fanaticism that occasioned it left us perplexed, angry, and determined to uproot the evil that has been visited upon us. High among the issues suddenly thrust upon our consciousness were those of security and economics. We discovered our vulnerability—something most people in the world were fully aware of and were long coping with, but which we had never considered as a result of living between the two great oceans on each side of us. We now had to protect ourselves from the technologically adept madmen who probably had more such awful tricks up their proverbial sleeves. And the destruction of the d'win Towers, the icons of American capitalism and the symbols of our national and individual wealth, coming at a time of a slowing economy, accelerated the bad news and left many people unemployed or underemployed.These challenges have been, are, and will be met and overcome. American ingenuity and unity sometimes falter when things are going well, but become heroically active when adversity suddenly confronts us. Our military activity in Afghanistan, our readiness to stand up to terrorists of all kinds, has inspired and encouraged us. The civilized world suffered from piracy until it was conquered, and international terrorism too will be vanquished, albeit not without more pain and suffering.But beyond these two obvious consequences of the 9/11 catastrophe was something more insidious, more personal, and more unsettling. And that is the philosophical and theological dilemma that widespread suffering had thrust upon us. As a result, Americans turned to their respective houses of worship in numbers considerably greater than usual, the media uncharacteristically turned introspective, and people who never gave thought to the ultimate questions of existenc…
Theodicy

Speech

An Interpretation of the Kaddish: Its Relevance to the Mourner (1969)

One of the greatest and most powerful ideals in all of Judaism is Kiddush Hashem, and its obverse, Hillul Hashem. This concept is based on the idea that man’s mission in the world is to represent God, that his duty is to enhance the Name or “reputation” of God, and his greatest crime is to desecrate the Name, or in some way diminish the Divine “reputation.” Whether and to what extent man commits Kiddush Hashem or Hillul Hashem depends upon his act, his own identity, and the nature of the people before whom he acts. Thus, for instance, a man who is identified strongly as a Jew who commits an immoral or unethical act before non-Jews is clearly guilty of the vilest form of Hillul Hashem. Conversely, one such who performs an act of moral heroism or self-sacrifice has performed the noblest act of Kiddush Hashem. In general, therefore, any act which brings credit to Torah, Israel, the Jewish tradition, or God – is an act of sanctification of the Name; and conversely, any deed which brings these into disrepute is an act of desecration of the Name. According to the Prophet Ezekiel, it is not only man who can and does perform either of these two polar concepts, but also – God. Our people was born under the shadow of a promise – the promise granted by God to our founding father, Abraham, that in the long run all will be well with us, that He will be with us, and that we will prosper and return to our own land. Whenever the people of the world see that Israel prospers, that God is with us, that that ancient promise is vindicated, then they come to acknowledge God, grudgingly or ungrudgingly, consciously or unconsciously. But if they see that Israel suffers in exile, that it is alone and hopeless, then they consider that promise a sham, the entire tradition a fraud, and the belief, the historic belief, of Israel nothing more than an empty shell. Thus, as long as Israel suffered friendlessly and hopelessly, the great thinkers and historians of the Western world dismissed all of…
Theodicy