“God was revealed at the Red Sea as a hero waging war, and at Sinai as an elder full of compassion, … [yet] it is the same God in Egypt, the same God at the Red Sea, the same God in the past, the same God in the future (Mekhilta, Shirata, Beshallah 4).”
And yet, "Do not believe that there are many deities in heaven because you have heard many voices, but know that I alone am the Holy One your God (Shemot Rabbah 29:1).”
“A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought; to surpass his needs, to do more than he understands in order to understand more than he does.”
In the beginning...God created the heaven and the earth, the earth was formless and chaotic, with darkness covering everything. Then God began to work...on the chaos, sorting things out, imposing order where the are been randomness before...But supposed God didn’t quite finish by closing time on the afternoon of the sixth day?
...Suppose that Creation, the process of replacing chaos with order, were still going on...The world is mostly an orderly, predictable place...but pockets of chaos remain...And chaos is evil; not wrong, not malevolent, but evil nonetheless, because by causing tragedies at random, it prevents people from believing in God’s goodness. (P. 51)
(7) I form light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil— I the LORD do all these things.
גמ׳ ת"ר שאלו פלוסופין את הזקנים ברומי אם אלהיכם אין רצונו בעבודת כוכבים מפני מה אינו מבטלה?
אמרו להם אילו לדבר שאין העולם צורך לו היו עובדין הרי הוא מבטלה הרי הן עובדין לחמה וללבנה ולכוכבים ולמזלות. יאבד עולם מפני השוטים?
אלא עולם כמנהגו נוהג ושוטים שקלקלו עתידין ליתן את הדין
דבר אחר הרי שגזל סאה של חטים [והלך] וזרעה בקרקע דין הוא שלא תצמח אלא עולם כמנהגו נוהג והולך ושוטים שקלקלו עתידין ליתן את הדין
דבר אחר הרי שבא על אשת חבירו. דין הוא שלא תתעבר אלא עולם כמנהגו נוהג והולך ושוטים שקלקלו עתידין ליתן את הדין
GEMARA: The Sages taught: Certain philosophers asked the Jewish Sages who were in Rome: If it is not your God’s will that people should engage in idol worship, for what reason does He not eliminate it?
The Sages said to them: Were people worshipping only objects for which the world has no need, He would eliminate it. But they worship the sun and the moon and the stars and the constellations. Should He destroy the world because of the fools?
Rather, the world follows its course, and the fools who sinned will be held to judgment in the future for their transgressions. D'var Acher: Behold one who stole a se’a of wheat and went and planted it in the ground. By right it should not grow. But the world goes along and follows its course and the fools who sinned will be held to judgment in the future for their transgressions. D'var Acher: Behold one who engaged in intercourse with the wife of another. By right she should not become pregnant. But the world goes along and follows its course and the fools who sinned will be held to judgment in the future for their transgressions.
Guide to the Perplexed, Part 3, Chapter 12, Maimonides
The evils that befall man are of three kinds:
(1) The first kind of evil is that which is caused to man by the circumstance that he is subject to genesis and destruction, or that he possesses a body.
(2) The second class of evils comprises such evils as people cause to each other, when, e.g., some of them use their strength against others.
(3) The third class of evils comprises those which every one causes to himself by his own action.
The hiding God is present; though man is unaware of him, He is present in his hiddenness. Therefore, God can only hide in this world. But if this world were altogether and radically profane, there would be no place in it for Him to hide. He can only hide in history. Since history is man's responsibility, one would, in fact, expect him to hide, to be silent, while man goes about his God-given task. Responsibility requires freedom, but God's convincing presence would undermine the freedom of human decision. God hides in human responsibility and human freedom.
- As metal is purified and hardened by going through fire, so is the soul of a righteous person, especially beloved by God, purified and strengthened so it can rise to the highest levels of spirituality and draw even closer to God in the next world.
- No person is perfect, and even the righteous person sins and requires punishment. Because God expects more from such a person, the punishments are more severe, and they ensure a noble entrance into heaven and the world to come.
- The righteous suffer to atone for the sins of earlier generations who did not adequately repent for their sins. God chooses the righteous because God knows that, due to the strength of their faith, they will bear their suffering without denying God and will set an example of faithfulness for others.
Abrahamic monotheism is not a religion of acceptance. It is a religion of protest...God exists and evil exists. The more powerfully I feel the existence of God, the more strongly I protest the existence of evil. That is why in the abrahamic faith, it is the giants of faith...who cry aloud, as Moses and Jeremiah and Habakkuk...That is why Job refuses to be comforted and why he would not let go of God. (Pages 240-241)
(טו) הכל צפוי, והרשות נתונה, ובטוב העולם נדון .והכל לפי רב המעשה.
(15) Everything is foreseen, and freewill is given, and with goodness the world is judged. And all is in accordance to the majority of the deed.
(טו) רבי ינאי אומר, אין בידינו לא משלות הרשעים ואף לא מיסורי הצדיקים.
(15) Rabbi Yanai says: We don't have the ability to explain the success of the wicked or the suffering of the righteous.
The Great Partnership, Lord Jonathan Sacks
The religious mind starts with the world that is, not the world that might have been. Within this world it seeks meaning. It does not seek explanation...The religious question is about meaning. (Page 237)
"Why do bad things happen vs. When bad things happen...wha now...?"
Rabbi Brad Artson
Shema: Adonai, our understanding of God, is ultimately a reflection of the Ein Sof, the One beyond all description.