Rabbi Joseph Telushkin* tells
the story of a tailor who is given some very fine material and asked to make a
pair of pants. After a week the customer comes back, but the pants are not
ready. Two weeks later, they are still not ready. Finally, after six weeks, the
pants are ready. The man tries them on – they fit perfectly. Nonetheless, when
it comes time to pay, he can’t resist a dig at the tailor. “You know”, he said,
“it took G-d only 6 days to make the world, and it took you six weeks to make just one pair of pants.”
“Ah,”
the tailor said, “but look at this pair of pants, and look at the world.”
We greatly appreciate the unique
ability of Jews to carry pain, and transform it into humor ... even when it
articulates a gentle joke toward G-d – as Woody Allen did when he said, “If
only G-d would give me a clear sign of his existence. Like making a large
deposit in my name in a Swiss bank account.” Or Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof,
asking “Would it destroy some vast eternal plan, if I were a wealthy man?”
But sometimes, like the Jewish
poets and prophets of the Bible itself, the justifiable questions posed to G-d
get downright bitter. “Who is like You among the dumb?” laments the School of
Rabbi Ishmael after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, while G-d remained
silent**. As Isaiah lamented in 45:15, “You are indeed a God who concealed
Himself...”
Rabbi Telushkin also quotes a
Hasidic rebbe in Auschwitz as telling
his followers: “There is a possibility that the Master of the Universe is a
liar.” “How can that be?” they protest. “Because”, he replied, “When G-d looks
down from heaven at what is going on here, He says, ‘I am not responsible.’ And
that’s a lie.” Telushkin explains that G-d would have to bear responsibility for
man’s misuse of the free will which G-d gave him.
Our reply to these things is
that the Master of the Universe takes full responsibility for what is going on
here. Nor has He been silent about what He is doing and why. The Bible
acknowledges the fact of human suffering, explains how G-d has taken
responsibility for it and why G-d has permitted it.... and gives clear statements about what He
intends to do about it, and when. We don’t need to be Kabbalists or even particularly
imaginative to read and understand the specific information which the Bible
offers about the timing and extent of human suffering and redemption, and
Jewish tribulations in particular.
G-d accepts
responsibility
First of all, we must distance
ourselves from the mainstream Christian concept which says that G-d simply made man free, and
that it’s our fault that we’re in this mess. We’ve even heard it said by
Christian speakers that we all deserve hell – meaning, to them, an eternity of
conscious torment. This is nonsense, as attested by Hashem’s protest against
the superstitious religious rites of Baal-worshipers who submitted their
children to flames: “They have built shrines to Baal, to put their children to
the fire as burnt offerings to Baal – which I never commanded, never decreed,
and which never came to My mind.” Jeremiah 19:5. The L-rd of the Bible uses
trouble as a means of teaching lessons, and declares death to be the end, not
the beginning, of suffering.
The goal of history is
repeatedly spelled out by the holy prophets: trouble and death will end, and
then resurrection will bring life again. Life in a climate of judgment in which
good deeds will be rewarded, dark dealings will be exposed, and everyone will
learn from their previous actions. (Isa. 26:9). Judgment and justice will
prevail. The poor and downtrodden of earth will have their fortunes reversed. A
beautiful earth, restored and redeemed, will be guided by the anointed ruler of
earth God will pick – the Messiah. This is the consistent vision of a golden
age presented for our hope and comfort by the prophets of Israel.*
*For a brief review of Bible
promises, see the following: Isaiah chapters 25, 35. Micah 4:1-4; Jeremiah
31:27-36; Amos 9:11-15
But in the meantime, there is
trouble. Plenty of it.
How does the
Master of the Universe accept responsibility for human suffering?
First let’s look at the book of
Job, possibly Moses’ first work: there, the Adversary is presented as a sort of
prosecuting attorney who wants to expose Job’s purported weakness. G-d grants
him permission to bring adversity. After Job’s children have died and his
wealth has been lost, G-d states, “Have you noticed My servant Job? There is no
one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns
evil. He still keeps his integrity; so you have incited Me against him to
destroy him for no good reason.”(Job 2:3) G-d does not blame the Adversary, but
accepts the obvious fact that since G-d could have vetoed any action by the
Adversary, clearly troubles that are permitted must be laid at Hashem’s
doorstep.
Moses in Deuteronomy outlines
the whole course of Jewish and world history, and presents the heavenly Father
as fully in charge, fully the master of the situation. “When the Most High gave
nations their homes and set the divisions of man, He fixed the boundaries of
peoples in relation to Israel’s numbers. For the Lord’s portion is His people,
Jacob His own allotment.” Later, after predicting a whole litany of failures
that Israel will commit because of G-d’s favor and special blessing to them,
Moses turns his attention to the rest of the world, and explains why Hashem
will not give up on Israel. “I might have reduced them to naught, made their
memory cease among men, but for the fear of the taunts of the foe, their
enemies who might misjudge and say, ‘Our own hand has prevailed; none of this
was wrought by the Lord!’”
G-d, speaking through Moses’
pen, muses about the Gentile enemies of Israel: “For they are a folk void of
sense, lacking in all discernment. Were they wise they would think upon this,
gain insight into their future: How could one have routed a thousand, or two
put ten thousand to flight [in other words, how can the Jews, G-d’s chosen
people, have been routed by puny human forces, as Moses has warned that they
will from time to time] unless their Rock had sold them, the Lord had given
them up?” Any time in human history that the Jews lose, fail or suffer, it can
only be when the Master of the Universe has chosen to permit it to be so. If
Jews suffer at the hands of Gentiles, whether it be Popes, or Spanish queens,
or Russian czars, or Nazi storm troopers, or French magistrates, or Arab
mullahs, or Palestinian homicide bombers, they are all the short-sighted
attacks of people who are “void of sense”, who do not have much insight into
their own future. They are tools G-d is using “to be My vengeance and
recompence” upon Israel. But there is a promise behind all of this. At the time
when it seems bleakest for Israel, for the foes of Israel “their day of
disaster is near, and destiny rushes upon them.” (Deuteronomy 32:35)
Moses continues: “For the LORD
will vindicate His people and take revenge for His servants (the nation of
Israel who anti-Semitic enemies have attacked). When He sees that their might
is gone, and neither bond nor free is left, He will say “See then, that I, I am
He; there is no God beside Me. I deal death and give life; I wounded and I will
heal.” (Deuteronomy 32:39)
And so Moses reassures all Jews
with the promise from Hashem himself: “O nations, acclaim His people! For He’ll
avenge the blood of His servants, wreak vengeance on His foes, and wipe away
His people’s tears.” (Deuteronomy 32:43)
Yes, it is understandable that
Jewish people would hesitate to embrace these words; partly because to do so,
to claim them as true, could smack of arrogance. To think that the Creator of
the Universe has taken what could be called a chauvinistic preference for the
Jewish people!
And to embrace these words of
Moses also could imply a bitter unpleasantness. To think that all the ugly,
untoward, cowardly, crazy, criminal and evil acts committed against the Jewish
people are somehow G-d’s will, or even worse, G-d’s judgment and “recompence”
upon Israel! That is too much! That is too bitter a pill to swallow – to
essentially blame the Jews for their own troubles.
No, that is not Moses’ point,
nor is it a fair reading of the Bible. The Jews in Jerusalem as Titus marched
in, the Jews in the dark ages, and the Jews in the Holocaust, were not
suffering because of their own sins. The words of G-d agree with the facts of
history which should be obvious to fair minded people: that the Jews have
suffered primarily because of the wicked zeal of their enemies – but the entire
amount of suffering has been permitted by God for the long-term benefits it
will bring to both individuals and the nation as a whole. The L-rd explains the
matter to Amos: “You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth
– that is why I call you to account for all your iniquities.” Amos 3:2.
Surely G-d, if he is as powerful
as the sacred texts which claim Divine authorship say he is, could have
prevented Satan from inciting rebellion, or Pharaoh from chasing Moses, or the
Amelekites from attacking Hebrew villages, or Nebuchadnezzar from sacking the Temple.
He could have kept Titus from destroying Jerusalem and crucifying thousands of
Jewish innocents. G-d could have kept dark-age Christians from being so
ignorant that they blamed – and killed thousands of – the Jews for the plague
that was brought on by the Christians’ own filth and squalor. G-d could have
kept the Czars from repeatedly destroying villages in the Pale of Settlement,
or could have caused Luther to see the light before he taught modern Germans to
hate and fear the Jew. G-d could have caused Hitler to get wiped out by an
errant bullet during one of his early riots, or allowed one of the
assassination attempts against him to be successful, or caused the Hungarians
to oppose Eichmann instead of cooperating with him, etc. etc. But the Master of
the Universe allowed the worst imaginable nightmares to rise up against the
Jewish people, and prosper. Why?
Hashem articulates his own
attitude toward the enemies of Israel in the prophecy of Isaiah:
“I was angry at My people, I
defiled My heritage; I put them into your hands, But you showed them no
mercy....” (Isaiah 47:6) Therefore, “Coming upon you suddenly is ruin of which
you know nothing.” (Verse 11)
Isaiah thus confirms some of the
details which G-d broadly promised to Abraham himself: “I will bless them that
bless you, and curse him that curses you. And you shall be a blessing.”
(Genesis 12:2-3)
Why was G-d upset with Israel,
causing their temples to be destroyed and, in Roman times, the diaspora? The
holy prophets outline specific grievances that G-d had against the Jewish
people – principally, the idolatry on one hand, and corrupt formalism on the
other, which characterized their collective religious attitudes during late
Bible times. “Pride, fullness of bread, abundance of idleness, and not strengthening
the hand of the poor and needy” were the sins of Sodom, which Ezekiel applied
to Israel as well ... adding a willingness to “sell themselves”, spiritually
speaking, to the indigenous peoples of the Land. Too much fraternization with
the other nations, adopting their ways and diluting the Jewish gene pool.
Hashem’s response was to
generate a state of affairs in which the Jews would feel isolated, and which
would require them to pull together, keep their divinely-given law covenant,
and resist their earlier tendencies to pick up the ways of their neighbors.
History shows that the Jews rose to the occasion, and became distinctively
faithful to their roots and their Rock. Though the time of their exile was
painful beyond words – the torture of an entire nation – the fullness of time
finally arrived over a century ago, and the olive branch penned in advance by
Isaiah was finally waved for the Jewish people: “Comfort, oh comfort My People,
says your God.. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and declare to her that her term
of service is over, that her iniquity is expiated; for she has received at the
hand of the Lord double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1-2)
For over a century, Bible
Students have been publicly stating that these words were due of fulfillment
beginning in 1878. Bible prophecies, too detailed to enumerate here, had given
the impression to members of this descendant of various Adventist movements
that the time had come for Israel to return to the Land. When the Zionist cause
first began to be proclaimed, it seemed laughable – except to the few
pioneering Jews who were already buying land in Palestine, and had established
their first settlement – the “Door of Hope” in the Valley of Achor, established
in that very year – 1878. The Berlin Congress of Nations, also in 1878, had
moved the geopolitical chess pieces far enough to allow England’s role to
increase, and the German and Muslim influence upon Palestine to diminish.
Slowly, cautiously, Jews began to return, spurred by growing hopes that the promises
to the holy prophets were indeed eternal and trustworthy – Hashem really did
intend that the Land should be occupied by the Jews.
World War 1 set the stage for
the next great step – the elimination of the ancient Ottoman control of the
Land, and the installation of a briefly pro-Jewish administration in England,
leading to the Balfour Declaration: “Her Majesty’s government looks with favor
upon the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish People.”
Jews and Gentiles alike should remember the words of Moses quoted above: “Were
they wise, they would think upon this....” These things were not accomplished
by the arm of flesh. They are the quiet, stately steppings of the Most High as
He works to accomplish His will in the earth.
Quiet miracles, but miracles
nevertheless have accompanied each advance step of God’s great plan for the
resettlement of the Jews. Just as HaShem promised Amos: “I will set up the
fallen booth of David; ... I will restore My people Israel. They shall rebuild ruined
cities and inhabit them....nevermore to be uprooted.” The land, contrary to
revisionist Palestinian propaganda, was nearly empty of people. The Jews came
first, rebuilding the land and creating a vibrant economy. Then came an influx
of Arabs and Palestinians, attracted by the job opportunities and better living
conditions which Jewish settlements afforded. Faith and sweat and blood and the
quiet power of G-d have rebuilt the waste cities, just as Hashem promised.
Israel is
God’s First-Born Son
Israel is the Son of God
according to the Bible, and Israel is also predicted to undergo incredible
suffering. We’re embarrassed by the terrible record of those who claim to follow Jesus for the past 2000 years. But
there is one striking parallel between the Jewish people and Jesus. Both were
crucified – tortured and left for dead. The early Christians were the ones who
believed the eyewitness accounts which said that Jesus rose from the dead on
the third day. But today there are many more eyewitnesses testifying to another
resurrection – also on the third day – Israel has returned from its national
grave, just as Ezekiel said it would. (Ezekiel 37). According to Moses, (Psalm
90) a thousand years is a day in HaShem’s eyes – and Israel died as a nation
over two thousand years ago – two full days. And Israel as a nation is being
reborn now – early on the third day. In our opinion, Jews should not concern
themselves with the written records of what happened in the first century.
Focus instead on what has happened in this generation. The resurrection of the
nation of Israel is a huge miracle. It is happening in spite of Roman
(Catholic) opposition. It is witnessed, not by a few, but by the entire world.
And it brings glory to HaShem, because it fulfills prophecies He caused to be
written thousands of years ago.
But what about
the Holocaust?
The Holocaust is the greatest
crime of human history, and if there is any event which should cause a person
to lose hope, this would be it. The Shoah reveals a depth of human depravity
that was unimaginable before it occurred. And it expands the scope and sadness
of Jewish suffering a thousand-fold. How, in the face of this unspeakable
disaster, can we still say that the 20th century is actually the
time of God’s returning favor to the nation of Israel?
The Prophet Isaiah seems to be
referring to this time when he speaks the words of HaShem: (51:12ff)
“I, I am He who comforts you!...
You live all day in constant
dread
because of the rage of an
oppressor
who is aiming to cut you down.”
Yes, the Nazis aimed to
completely destroy the Jews. But though they killed half – a terrible toll –
the other half survived, and the Nation of Israel was reborn with the help of
very temporary world sympathy.
“Quickly the crouching one (Jews
who were hiding) is freed;
He is not cut down and slain,
And he shall not want for food.
For I the Lord your God...
Sheltered you with my hand;
I, who planted the skies and
made firm the earth
have said to Zion, You are My people!
Rouse, rouse yourself!
Arise, O Jerusalem,
You who from the Lord’s hand
(here is G-d taking
responsibility again – but He assures us that all Israel’s enemies will indeed
be punished)
have drunk the cup of His wrath,
You who have drained to the dregs
the bowl, the cup of reeling!...
These two things have befallen
you:
Wrack and ruin – who can console
you?
Famine and sword – how shall I
comfort you?
Your sons lie in a swoon
at the corner of every street –
Like an antelope caught in a net
–
Drunk with the wrath of the
Lord,
with the rebuke of your God.”
Yes, we can fully understand how
damaging the Holocaust has been to the faith of young Jewish people. Like Elie
Wiesel, who wrote that the Holocaust took away his capacity to believe in God,
many Jewish survivors of the Holocaust have indeed been caught in a net,
immobilized by their grief, guilt, and torment. With their own personal cup of
suffering full to overflowing, wonderful, sensitive, people like these must be
respected for choosing to give up on the notion of a powerful and just Master
of the Universe ... How fully understandable it is that even the words of G-d
would be ineffective at consoling this national, soulful shiva of the Jewish
people.
But HaShem continues:
“Therefore, listen to this,
unhappy one,
Who are drunk, but not with
wine! (As we stated, the Jewish people are largely incapacitated by their
terrible drinking of the dregs of the “cup of reeling” mentioned above)
Thus said the Lord, your Lord,
Your God who champions His
people:
Herewith I take from your hand
the cup of reeling,
The bowl, the cup of My wrath;
You will never drink it again.
I will put it in the hands of
your tormentors,
who have commanded you,
“Get down, that we may walk over
you” –
So that you made your back like
the ground,
Like a street for a passersby.”
Yes, the Nazis and their
modern-day ilk will be given the cup of the dregs of God’s anger, and the Jews
will never have to drink from that cup again. The ones who hate Israel will
henceforth be forced to suffer for their opposition of Zion. Never again will
Jews need to lay down so that other people can walk over them, as the Nazis did
literally and figuratively.
We know that our words are
inadequate, but we hope the sentiment expressed by Isaiah will prove to be a
blessing as happiness, victory and hope gradually become more tangible to the
pragmatic and honest eyes of the children of Israel.
Paying the
Price of the Land
There remains much that needs to
be done in Israel. Every day, new terrors lurk, threatening every bus-ride,
every cup of coffee, every step outside the house or near a window. Sometimes
it seems like the suffering of the Jewish people will never end.
As we consider how to console,
how to encourage our Jewish friends, our minds go back to Abraham, to the
struggle that he began, which earned him the name, “Father of the Faithful”
What did Abraham do?
Well, he never owned the land of
Israel. But when Sarah died his Hittite friends offered him a piece of their
land for her burial. (Genesis 23:1-20)
Though he could have received
the land as a gift, Abraham was quite insistent. He wanted to own the land that
his wife was buried on. And he wanted to pay the whole price. So he weighed out
the payment – 400 shekels of silver, “the going merchants’ price.”
What is the lesson for today? We
believe that the ongoing agony of Israel is the final phase of the saga that
Abraham began. God has given the Land to Abraham and his children. But people
cannot. We believe G-d has arranged for this situation so that the Jewish
people will finally come to see that they must be willing to pay the full price
of that land. He wants them to insist on taking title, and He wants them to pay
the going rate – to part with as much silver, sweat, and yes, blood as it will
take to secure that land and make it fully their own.
Never again should Jews try to
trade that land for peace. They must believe God, that the land of Israel is
like their right hand. They must find the price that needs to be paid for the
Land, and pay it. They must stay there and tend it; and they must believe the
promises of the One who led them there. Never mind the sirens song of
geopolitical power struggles, of “humanitarian” concerns, of American aid or
U.N. approval or Arab “peace”. There is only one blue chip in this poker game,
and it is the Land that G-d gave to the Jewish people. It must be held, never
traded away for any human promise or geopolitical advantage. The truth is
stated by HaShem: all Israel’s “lovers” will forsake her whenever it is in their
interests to do so.
Israel has only one Rock, but it
is a Rock that can be leaned on reliably. Never again will the Jewish people be
plucked from the Land that G-d has given them.
Hear the words of Isaiah, taken
from the 45th chapter, already in process, yet awaiting their
complete fulfillment in the coming generation:
“Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your folk from the
East,
Will gather you out of the West;
I will say to the North, “Give
back!”
And to the South, “Do not
withhold!”
Bring My sons from afar,
And My daughters from the end of
the earth –
All who are linked to My name,
Whom I have created,
formed, and made for My glory –
Setting free that people,
Blind though it has eyes
And deaf though it has ears.”
All the nations assemble as one,
The peoples gather.
Who among them declared this,
Foretold to us the things that
have happened?
Let them produce their witnesses
and be vindicated,
That men, hearing them, may say,
“It is true!”
My witnesses are YOU
–declares the Lord–
My servant [Israel], whom I have
chosen.
To the end that you may take
thought,
And believe in Me,
And understand that I am He;
Before Me no god was formed,
And after Me none shall exist –
None but me, the Lord;
Beside Me, none can grant
triumph.
I alone foretold the triumph [of
Israel, in spite of incredible odds and all the conventional wisdom]
And I brought it to pass;
I announced it,
And no strange god was among
you.
So you are my witnesses
–Declares the Lord –
And I am God....
I am your Holy One, the Lord,
Your King, the Creator of
Israel....
It is I, I who – for my own sake
--
Wipe your transgressions away
And remember your sins no more.”
“It is I who say of Jerusalem,
‘It shall be inhabited.’
And of the towns of Judah, ‘They
shall be rebuilt,
and I will restore the ruined
places...’
And to the Temple, ‘You shall be
founded again.’...
When people trust in Him,
all their adversaries are put to
shame.
It is through the Lord that all
the offspring of Israel
have vindication and glory.”
And Isaiah’s words in 49:6 amaze
us with the grandeur of the opportunity of the Jewish people:
“I will also make you a light of
nations, that My salvation may reach the ends of the earth.”
These are the words of the G-d
of Jacob. Our message to all Jews, everywhere, is – you can, you should, and in
due time with G-d’s help, you will, trust these words.
* Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Humor: What the best Jewish jokes say
about the Jews. 1992, William Morrow & Company, New York p. 143
**As quoted by Rabbi Telushkin,
ibid, p. 144