Response to Parsha Questions

Just a few thoughts in response to Rabbi Besser's post. 

First, I think there is a difference between attributing disasters to particular causes, and taking meaning from disasters.  In other words, I can’t presume to know why Irene happened, or why so many people have to suffer, but I can internalize from that that ultimately my life is in God’s hands.  I can’t presume to understand the Holocaust, but I can learn humility in the face of God’s master plan.

Furthermore, I think it is dangerous to try to attribute disasters to a particular cause.  Without direct communication with neviim, we can’t ever really know what God agrees or disagrees with, and we certainly can’t judge when something is bad enough to cause suffering on a grand scale  Trying to make those calls undermines the humility we should be striving for.  

Also, I think questioning God is part of the religious growth process, which we can learn from Iyov, who was a faultless person who lost everything he had, including his family.  Iyov is not faulted for raging against God; on the contrary, those in the book who claim that his losses must be due to sins are silenced.  All Iyov is asked to do is understand that he can’t really understand why God does what He does.  I think that’s all that’s asked of us.