Sunday, September 11, 2011

An Anonymous Student Responds


In response to what Rabbi Besser said about natural and man made disasters being punishments for our bad behavior, while I somewhat agree that sometimes, the reason bad things happen is to tell us that we're doing something wrong, is that really fair to everyone, both Jews and Non Jews, to punish us so harshly? Coincidentally, today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. If people try to give a reason for 9/11, or Chas V'Shalom, JUSTIFY it, by saying, "Well, Hashem must be trying to tell us something. Let's learn from this punishment and move on and try to be better Jews as a result of it.", did all of those people, whether Jewish or not, really deserve to die, and have their family and friends go through such trauma, just so Hashem could show us that we aren't living up to our potential? The same goes for the Holocaust. Did 6 million Jews really have to die for this point to be made? If these man made disasters really are punishments and we're supposed to learn from them, doesn't the fact that they are so harsh and traumatic make people want to further themselves from being the best Jew they can be? I know that many people didn't want to be religious after the Holocaust because they believed that "Hashem should've helped us". I know that this is an extremely hard question to answer, and of course, we have no control, and we should obviously have as much emunah in Hashem as possible, but sometimes, I can't help but be bothered by this notion that people should lose their lives so that we can possibly take a lesson from it.

No comments: