We are confronted by the fact that God, the just, ordered the killing of the young children of the Midianites (Numbers 31:17) and the extermination of the young children of the Generation of the Flood (Genesis 6-9). We note also how He continually causes pain and even death to little babes. Logical necessity, therefore, demands that there exist after death a state in which they would obtain compensation for the pain suffered prior thereto.
ומזה עוד שהוא צדיק כאשר צוה בהרוג טף מדין, והמית טף המבול, והנה אנחנו רואים שהוא מצער בטף וממיתם, מתחייב שיהיה אחר המות ענין, שיגיעו בו אל תמורת מה שנצטערו בו, כאשר בארנו
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein:
The source of my support was not confined to my immediate Rabbis. At one point, during my late teens, I was troubled by certain ethical questions concerning [the destruction of ] Amalek etc. I then recalled having recently read that Rabbi Chaim Brisker would awaken nightly to see if someone hadn't place a foundling at his doorstep. I knew that I slept quite soundly, and I concluded that if such a paragon of kindness coped with these laws, evidently the source of my anxiety did not lie in my greater sensitivity but in my weaker faith. And I set myself to enhancing it.
Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamares (1869-1931)
As the text of the Passover Haggadah states, “And I shall pass [through Egypt] on this night—I and not an emissary.” The Holy Blessed One could have given Israel the ability to exact revenge on the Egyptians themselves. However the Holy Blessed One did not want to show them how to use their own fists. Even though at that moment it would be to protect themselves from the wicked, it would end up causing the spread of the use of the fist throughout the world, and the defenders would eventually become pursuers [...]
We can now explain the beraita that discusses the verse, “and you shall not leave, not any one, from the door of his home until the morning.” Rav Yosef taught, “once permission was given to the destroyer, he will not differentiate between wicked and righteous.” At first glance, this beraita is a deep contradiction to the statement in the Haggadah of “I and not an emissary.” How can the beraita say, “once permission was given to the destroyer!” But according to our ways the two statements match. For the beraita is coming to explain why the Holy Blessed One sought to exact vengeance Himself and did not allow the Israelites even to look. The answer is that God acted in this way so as not to arouse the destroyer that is within the Israelites themselves. For once permission is given, he will not distinguish between wicked and righteous and the defender will in the end become a pursuer.
אמנם התנה בזה ואתם לא תצאו איש מפתח ביתו עד בקר. ודרשו רז"ל כיון שניתנה רשות למשחית לחבל שוב אינו מבחין בין צדיק לרשע. וכונתם בזה ב' שרשים. האחד שה' לא ישנה תמיד טבע המציאות אבל ימשיכהו על הויתו וטבעו כ"א לצורך גדול. והשני כי לדברים כלם סבות כוללות לא חלקיות. ואין הדברים מגיעים לאישים מהש"י בזולת אמצעי. שאלו היה כן לא היה נספה צדיק עם רשע בשום צד. והוא מה שאמר שלמה הע"ה בחכמתו (קהלת ה׳:ז׳) אם עשק רש וגזל משפט וגו'. באורו אם תראה במדינה עושק שיהיה האיש הטוב רצוץ משפט בלתי משיג למה שיהיה ראוי שיהיה משיג לפי שלמותו וענינו. כי האיש אשר הוא נראה טוב שיהיה נגזל המשפט. אבל תתמה איך יחפוץ הש"י בזה. שאלו היו סבות המציאות חלקיות ופרטיות לכל איש מאנשיו ולכל פרט מפרטיו היה זה התימה נופל. אבל סבות המציאות אינם כן. כי כל ענינם בהשתלשלות סבות גבוה מעל גבוה וגבוהים עליהם. ובהיות הסבות כלליות היה צרך שישתנה טבע המציאות בשביל כל אחד ואחד. ולא רצה זה הש"י ואמר להם ואתם לא תצאו איש מפתח ביתו. וזה ענין ג"כ מסיר ספקות גדולות מדברים רבים מראים בלבול בהנהגה.
Still, their being saved was conditional, viz. (Ibid 22): "But none of you shall leave the door of his house until morning," upon which our sages commented (Bava Kamma 60a): "Once the destroyer has been permitted to destroy, he does not discriminate between the righteous and the wicked." Two principles are herein subsumed. The first, that the L rd is not wont to change the natural order but preserves it in is usual course, barring an exceptional need. The second, that all things have generic causes, not specific ones. The things that reach individuals from the Blessed One do not reach them without mediation, for if they did, a righteous man would never perish together with a wicked one. This is what Solomon stated in his wisdom (Koheleth 5:7): "If you see the oppression of the poor and the perversion of judgment and justice in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for higher upon higher is the Watcher, and there are higher things over them." That is, if you see oppression in a province, a good man broken by a judgment entirely undeserved in point of his goodness and perfection, and a seemingly good man cheated of justice, do not wonder how the Blessed One can desire to permit this. For if the causes of events were distinct and specific, affecting particular individuals and isolated entities, there would be room for such wonder. But this is not the nature of causation. All things, rather, proceed within a hierarchy, in a causal chain, level upon level, with ever higher levels succeeding. All causes being generic, then, for G d to relate directly to each individual would entail a transformation of the nature of existence, something which He did not desire. For this reason He said to them: "But none of you shall leave the door of his house until morning." This also resolves some formidable doubts in relation to many things which ostensibly indicate an erosion of Divine Providence. .
