Tzadik Vra Lo by Rabby Anthony Manning

this topic that we're dealing with which is the last share today in this topic it's no less painful than than it has Me Maybe it's even more and that's one of the reasons that I'm nervous to even address the topic but we we've looked quite hard at this and maybe just to recap and then to launch into today next week we'll get into something quite different batem um towards the end of the month I actually want to speak about something that I haven't spoken at all about over the years but I always mean to I normally travel in November you may know that I've started a new job I'm now the the the rash mid and for all sorts of reasons I won't bore you with I now need to travel in December but I'm here in November which is for me and I want to speak a little bit about the Ethiopian community and Sig which is towards the end of November and the fascinating halakic issues that have come up in integrating that important Community into Israel I'm not going to speak about it for for many year maybe one or two but I want to deal with that and some halakic issues and move away from this topic but we we we've been talking about the classic question to which there is no one answer maybe no answer at all that is going to satisfy us which is the problem of suffering in the world uh why do things happen to people uh who we we we have no way of understanding how that could possibly be just at the same time as we're constantly being told by the Kash by Revelation that God is all powerful all knowing all um loving Etc we looked at those issues we looked at skeptical theism the idea that well come on how would you ever really expect to understand the answer to this question it's not logical it's almost it's almost a ridiculous question given the complexities involved we looked at the sources is that a satisfying answer to some yes to some no we looked at issues of punishment which people are often quick to why are we being punished and we saw it's much more complicated than that there is no punishment in this world in in the ultimate sense we saw and that the world to come is a very important part of that and that's something also that we don't really understand we look to the issue of afflictions of Love do we believe in that do we accept that the ramb said no way other people said yes but what does it mean exactly um we looked at uh the issue of free will do we really believe that people's choices are also being willed by Hashem in some sense when things happen to us because of other people's wickedness is that an intended consequence by God or is that something that God's if you like crying with us and saying how are people doing this how are people acting like this this is not what I wanted this is not fair this is not just but now that people have had this choice they have to have we need to rearrange the whole universe and the future of mankind and and the world to come to to Accord with it we talked last time finally about uh what we call Soul making theodes do we need these struggles either the people are struggling or the people around them that are struggling with them to build us into the resilient people that we need to be to achieve what we need to achieve and again none of these answers justify the sense of pain um but they are a way of trying to connect with the ideas and today we need to to look at two things which are very important the first one is a question that people keep asking through the shim which I keep saying don't worry we'll deal with that in a couple of weeks and now the time has arrived which is maybe we're asking completely the wrong question are we why do we assume that every single thing that happens to us is all this is all a message from God this is happening because God made this happen and God made this happen why are we assuming that maybe the world is a much more complicated place and there's a bigger and it's not just about me and it's not just about this individual it's about a much bigger a much bigger theme a much bigger um idea and uh we we are sometimes led to believe and we'll talk about this in a minute we've been increasingly educated over the last 300 years to think that every single thing that happens to us is is divine direct Providence and this if you like sharpens the question that we have on suffering well if this is all coming directly from God then I have an even bigger question then why why is this coming whereas we'll see in a few minutes that the the the the broad majority of Ron did not understand things this way at all they understand that a very few people have direct and the rest of us has something else we'll talk about what that other thing is in a minute and even the mualim even the cabalistic thinkers uh the theim and the vagon over the last two 300 years who've been pushing in a much more direct way except that in in principle that's the case but in practice it's still kind of the way that the Wason him saw it which is that most people do not perceive we'll talk about that right now and then we need to end the sh I need to make sure I give myself 5 10 minutes at the end to talk about a completely different response which is an anti- theodicy response to say that this whole series of Sherm is a waste of time yeah and and we should have been talking about something else completely and we'll talk about that at the end of the sh let's talk about as I said we're all led to think and we'll see the sources in a minute that everything happening to us is direct Providence the rambam who we'll see is not alone in giving the opinion he gives he gives us an outlining number one he says how God rules the universe and provides for it is a complete mystery man is unable to solve it for on the one hand it can be proved that God is separate from the universe and in no contact whatever with it remember we say kadosh means separate so God is Not Just kadosh but God is kados kados kados the idea that when Jews just want to emphasize something they just say it lots and lots of times you know Kad kados kados meaning God is as removed as we can possibly imagine for the world from the world but on the other hand his Rule and Providence can be proved to exist in all parts of the universe even the smallest what do we say after but somehow the whole world is filled with God's presence how do I live with that Paradox says the rambam praise be he whose Perfection is above our comprehension now the rambam in is is writing a whole book to try and explain these ideas to us so he's not just going to give up but he says you have to understand that you're not going to get this uh in a way that resolves the issues having said that there seem to be lots of sources that say that God does control the world uh in a very direct way we'll see them in a minute but that doesn't necessarily help us in how to respond how do we respond looking number two I'm I'm a if a person sees that they suffering has come to them in some way two options you should look at your Deeds you should check into your life you should look internally we will we will check into our lives we will look at our lives We Will introspect We Will examine it we will do CH meaning the question why is not the relevant question the question is well what now what should I do what can I do as opposed to obsessing about why why is this happening how is this happening why is this happening to me the gar says look if you're suffering then things need to you need to think what the next step should be and a fascinating sourcing number three have a look at number three quite a famous Source I don't think we've discussed it in this sh before for two and a half years and not getting into now what's the relevance of two and a half years were arguing and one group said now this is often quoted even by it would have been better not to have been created than to have been created but actually Noah doesn't mean to it means it would have been easier it would have been easier more comfortable never to have been created and others said No it's it's it's actually more comfortable for us now that we've been created m so nimu what did they decide they came to a resolution amazing this is the same death remember as B sh arguing about and and a bat call was needed and and they couldn't resolve it here actually they didn't need a bat call they worked it out and they said you know something we've agreed it actually would have been easier never to have been here but but now that we are here which R says Look Backwards on our lives and see what we did wrong the and others say and I don't think this is really Aus which says like you mash mesh get your hands on your life get a maybe get a handle on life is is a good translation and work out what you can do in the future think of the midst for opportunities that you have think forward forward thinking um and therefore I think this is very clear that it's saying that when a person is suffering and perceives suffering and is dealing with other people who are suffering the relevant question is always forward-looking it's not it's not uh why but it's what now we'll see this coming back at the end of the shim in terms ofh it seems pretty clear when you look at the tanak that the tanak never envis that every single person had the same Pro let's look at just and we could bring other sources number four just a sample from this very famous who does not suffer who does not lack in in life Ur those people who fear God not everybody those people who fear God who are the people who will not lack those who are Seekers D not everybody some people will lack but the D hasem are getting special treatment sadik The Eyes Of God are specifically on the sadik God is close to to who those who are brokenhearted and he saves those who are down and downhearted those who serve God they get the treatment so we see again and again in this toim who gets the special treatment the special theim theim theem now again who are these people I don't know could be everybody in this room it we've talked about this before it's very hard to see who's at sadic you know they don't wear a sign that they're at sadic and if they do then that's a pretty good proof that they're not okay and and therefore we we might be very surprised in when we see who indeed are the sikim but whoever they are they get the treatment kazal um seems to say different things on this let's look at some of these sources and see if we can draw any clear conclusions number five the a person doesn't stub their toe down here on Earth only if there's been a decree they've decreed on this milala and he brings a POS to to support that from IO actually which we Sorry from Mish from tahim and from Mish now what does that mean that means every time I stub my toe God is decreed it well it didn't say God decreed it it said there's a the something going on in the spiritual world that relates to my stubbing my toe a relatively minor inconvenience but it sounds like this is often brought that there as a proof that there is some kind of some kind of has on even small things that that uh that that are happening below and number six what does it mean when there's suffering on people that we have to analyze even trivial things you have a altered some clothing altered and you go and put it on and it doesn't fit oh irritating small small beer but irritating that's youur on some level you put on your undershirt back to front I don't know why but my very kind of superstitious polish Grandparents were very uh concerned that if I put my shirt on back to front I should never take it off and put it the right way around I have no idea to this day what's going on with that it was something all I know is when I was a kid I used to go to school with my like like this with my you know you're a kid you're a kid you just do what they tell you I don't know in my inside inside out maybe maybe it all got mixed up anyway that's an irritation okay another example even if you put in your your hand in your pocket to pull out your wallet little shalash to take take out three coins and you only have two I've lost my car keys I've lost my wallet how many times a week does that happen to you okay and and that's even that even that is yurin meaning even small things in life and again is this a proof that they're all being controlled by God or is this a proof that our attitude should be you know something I want to take something positive out of this maybe I should learn to remember where I put my car keys and do something about that but I I don't know if this is saying that God is making me lose my coin or it's saying that I need to see this Asin and actually do something proactively with it look at number seven the again flamess everything is in the hands of Heaven everything except for and we saw last time however the rambam says yeah but that everything is in the hands of Heaven is actually not that much everything except what you've had any involvement in in your choices in life meaning hurricanes earthquakes the weather next week that's in the hands of shamim but everything else says the r is sh it's up to you so even when you read something that says sh sounds like everything's controlled by God Well define define what's in everything and what's not in everything look at number eight there is no grass in the world bar that doesn't have a masle some kind of a a system of heavenly workings on high that smacks it says to it grow now this is often quoted as a source you see every single blade of grass has has prus it has a it has a a Heavenly Source saying you grow and you grow but that's not what it actually says how first of all as asev maybe that means every species doesn't mean every blade of grass actually there a from last week par that ASA means a species of grass and it doesn't say that God is making every every grass grow it says that there's a mule o now we get into a discussion about mule what is mule is mule part of this system is mule hash or is a mule just a system that's been set up in which we have to do the best in life but actually masle is not Hask process it's a different system and we've we've given shirim about this and we've discussed this and I refer to them on on the website you can get them off the website so I'm just bringing you these sources which are often wielded out saying look you see everything is hash and each of them well when you look at it it's not so POS it's not so straightforward that that's talking about what you think it's talking about number nine go to page three person should always say everything that God does is for the good okay we looked at that a little bit remember the story where Rea and the candle and the etc etc so again is that telling us that God is making everything happen to us and it's good for us because God wants it to happen to us or is that saying look lots of things are happening to us but our attitude can be must be well we have to make something good out of this we have to see it for the good because I don't know why it's happening so how are you going to read this number 10 how long people live whether they live or whether they die Bonnie their families whether their families Prosper or not ma whether they have money or not it's nothing to do with your Merit it's nothing to do with your merits or your Mitzvah it's all masle masle mle maszle look at these two rabbis R and both were great no question one DAV for rain and the rain came and the other D for rain and the rain came for him too no question look at's life he lived till he was 92 R RAB died at 40 in's long life he made 60 in short life 60 funerals on the third line number 10 in Ra's home there was fine flour for the dogs they'd throw dog food the best flour for Bo and they didn't they didn't have any shortages B in Rab's house they were lucky to have a little bit of barley bread for the people never mind the dogs and they couldn't even find that two rabbis equally Sim no question one lived a long life successful beautiful family lots of Simas and lots of money and the other had never a terrible terrible difficult life why mule there's lots of things in life that are nothing to do with our direct mule direct Mitzvah they're down to musle and even in number 11 where the gamar talks about money it says that your your money your wealth or poverty doesn't come from your profession it's all to do with your Merit chimes in what does that mean your Merit it means your he brings the other gor so all I'm trying to bring here and all I'm going to leave you with is confusion I'm sorry I have no other option is that the idea that sikim suffer is yes sikim suffer and it may not have anything to do with their merits whatsoever it may be bigger picture issues which G leads us to the question of so so how does hash work so let's talk briefly about this I brought you in number 12 a very detailed Source in English which I'm not going to read in detail because we will'll run out of time if I do but the rambam basically goes through and he says there are five different theories about has and fascinatingly if you look in this Rim he goes through the different comforters of eov each one of them in turn and explains how each one of them is pushing a different version of has on E it's fascinating how he does that so I'll summarize them for you and we'll look at the one which he says is the Torah one because that's what we're most interested in the first one he says is look there are some people that say there's no hash at all and there's no hash at all there's God's not interested it's a kind of deistic view God buil created the universe and then disappeared to do something more important and everything that happens is completely random he said that's not a Jewish approach that's not backed up by the Torah and that's not even a Greek philosophical approach either that's just ridiculous he said that's the approach of epicurus that's epicurus there is lace Den D there's no one in charge nothing is happening through any hash he says reject that completely any thinking person he says philosophically or religiously rejects that the second theory is the idea of Aristotle which is that God gets involved directly only with the senior management which in this case of the stars and the planets and the things that if you like are beyond the lunar sphere the the sual lunary world but everything underneath the moon and if you think of the Aristotelian system it's the Earth in the middle and then the Moon and the Sun the planets etc etc um everything within our sphere is onlyhit says Aristotle he doesn't use those words but that's what he says it's it's it's run by B by general principles like Rules of Nature that's how God set up the world so God is not involved in hash proes and he gives some very graphic examples he says if a cow walks along a field and Treads on a bunch of ants and kills them all that's no different than if a ship with 100 people on is sailing on the sea and there's a hurricane and all the people drown says Aristotle there's no h Pro on people on animals it's only Hash Hash is only on the the senior the senior controllers of the universe okay and he rejects that as well he says that's not a Torah approach either the third and the fourth I missed out the fourth but I put the third in here he says is there are some people who hold this religiously but it's completely wrong it's absurd he says which is that every molecule in the universe has direct everything is the will of God it's the opposite if you like of Aristotle he said we don't believe that either absurd and he brings all sorts of proes as to why we don't believe that the fifth let's look at the fifth I miss out the fourth it's the fourth is similar to the third but it's instead of divine will it's divine wisdom you could you can read this all yourself in the morim by the way there's a very good new translation of theim out by Professor Len Goodman if anyone's interested in a decent English translation then that's a a big step forward but this is not from that it was before that let's have a look at the fifth on page four this is our Theory oh this is what I'm interested in that of our law and I will show you first the view expressed on this subject in our prophetical books and generally accepted by the sages I will then give the opinion of some later authors amongst us and lastly I will explain my own belief now those who are interested in my modan studies will say ah does that mean his belief is different to the Torah belief and he's got his own that takes us too far beyond our share today but basically says the following the theory of man's perfectly Free Will is one of the fundamental principles of the law and of those who follow the law according to this principle man does what is in his power to do by his Nature by his choice okay free will it's an absolute next paragraph another fundamental principle taught by the law of Moses is the wrong cannot be ascribed to God in any way whatsoever all evils and afflictions as well as all kinds of Happiness of man whether they concern one individual person or a community are distributed according to Justice they are results of strict Justice that admits no wrong whatsoever so principle number two is everything is run by God in a way which is just so everyone has free will the world is a just place and he then goes on to say my opinion on this principle of D pois I will now explain to you the principle which I accept is far less open to objections for you can decide for yourself whether you agree with that and is more reasonable than the opinions mentioned before it is this in the lower or sublunary portion of the universe Divine Providence does not extend to the individual members of species except in the case of mankind it is only in this species that the incidence and the existence of in individual beings are the result of Justice in accordance to the world for all his ways of judgment but I agree with Aristotle regarding all other living beings and plants and the rest of the world basically he says I agree with Aristotle that the the animals the trees the plants Noh that's systems systems Rules of Nature God set it up it runs according to that system people people are different he disagrees with Aristotle Aristotle said it's for everybody he said no people have and they definitely have a Divine direct intervention go over the page to five understand thoroughly my theory I do not ascribe to God ignorance of anything it's not that God doesn't know what's happening to every leaf I hold the Divine Providence is related and closely connected with the intellect though because Providence can only proceed from an intelligent being and here he sets up and like you can read in number 13 and number 14 the ramban basically says all human beings have but it is proportional to their connection to God proportional to their connection to God meaning animals Blades of grass rocks they cannot have any connection to God through any kind of intellect or psyche or anything which is mental and therefore they can't have any they're just part of a system people can have that connection and therefore to the extent that they have that connection they have but to the extent that they don't have that connection they lose and therefore people's says he moving in and out of close and further away as we are more connected or less connected and actually this idea pretty much becomes the idea that all the MIM pick up on they just disagree on what's called connection for the ramam it's intellectual connection for others it's Mitzvah connection for others it's learning Torah connection when he talks in what gives you is learning Torah for others it's the more you have the more you have the more connection you have meaning they're all looking slightly differently at what it means to be connected but they're all agreeing even though yes the cabalists and the later Aron have a very different overall system than the earlier was Shon in but they're agreeing that it's dependent on the individual and the rambam builds this up in number 13 and number 14 and he talks about the A and he talks about mosenu and he says when they were connected they had and they were connected an awful lot more than you or I because of who they were so they had more hash we can get there but we're not there for most of the time yes sir I know I understand that's not the way they're using it I mean you you can a lot of things for the rambam is very dependent on you because remember we learned we learned last week or the week before that most of the bad things that happen to a person in life say a ramb result of their own poor choice he agrees with that that's I don't think what we're calling we're asking is God involved and to what extent is God involved yes so why do we say in the second portion Mal that all the Seas and the mountains are controll they are controlled God and the rambon will say the the r says yeah but one second they don't have has but if you look in the rambam where were all these Miracles where did they come from they were programmed into the system they were part of mass and K even say things like this when they say that this miracle and this miracle were created on the sixth day of creation at the end of meaning they're part of the system the sea was set up to split in this way and you could even say well look that's why the wind blew why does the wind have to blow for cre yansu let God just do this and the Sea splits it's not how it works the Wind Blows the sea splits so someone can look at it and say ah it's just like if the wind blows this way the sea splits this way yeah say Nish good you have to work out to how to fit all of this in with all of these before you have to rethink what we're saying in each case and but and this is very important because this is often presented as the view of the Rambo oh but we but everybody else doesn't hold that but that's not true because Ro Ron most rishonim agree with this and let me show you a few Choice examples go to page six I leave you to read theim in your own time in English or if you want to tackle the original Arabic you're welcome but look at number 15 the ramban now the ramban had a very different world view to the ramban of many things he was a Mystic he didn't have the same approach to Miracles and so many other things but he says in um actually it's V excuse me coming up very soon in number 15 I know Abraham this is when he's going to reveal to him that sto will be destroyed I know him I have a very direct relation don't forget the word Yuda is a very intimate word and Abraham and Adam knew his wife it's a very in God knows Abraham etc etc what does this mean he knew him look at number 15 in the r in the r it seems to me correct me he really really knows him that the knowledge of God which means in the lower World it it it in it's it keeps the general system working and in that General people are subject to what's MRA chance things now it's not chance in the sense that it's random it's part of a bigger system and God is well aware of it his Yia knows this okay until eventually their time is up but there are special people Pious people again who who they are I'm not discussing now those people get God's direct attention so that his is on them always and God doesn't take away his his from those people at all it says in that sad gets God's Focus so again the ran is saying everybody has and everybody but not everyone has the same some people have a lot more some people have a lot less R says a very similar thing he reflects this in number 16 that sikim have more other people have less but let me look at the Sao in number 17 those people who sleep through life God doesn't really know those people they don't really know God they don't really they're not they're clueless they're pretty clueless in life they just go through life and who are those people the H all the non-jews in the world who do not study these things and the vast majority of the Jews as well well he doesn't say vast he says the majority of the Jews Z all apart from the very very very few almost everybody in the world they are under nature and all the workings of mule Etc and they're really not much different to animals these animals this cow doesn't get any but the species the big rules and most people are like that he said let's not kid ourselves let's not pretend to ourselves that everything we do is a direct message from AES because that's only true of the real sikim and therefore when we have questions about why did this happen how did this happen these questions need to be framed a bit differently with this in mind now this is not very reassuring maybe maybe we'd like to think that we were all surrounded by hash and actually over the last two or 3 hundred years and I mentioned this before um because of a number of things because of the theat massacres and maybe because of shap and because of the growth ofas and all these things are connected historically we came to take a a view an opinion that actually everyone does have a not like the ramban and the ramban and the Soro have said but actually everybody every leaf every blade of grass even though most of the rim said that's absurd we take that view but and here's the big but um the the rla who are very much representatives of this later more cabalistic view not like the Ron him they say yeah but that's in principle but in practice most people other than the great sikim live in a world of they live in a world where you can't see God's so even if they do have hash which he says they do they don't sense so we kind come back to where we started which is that even if in principle they have different systems in practice most of what happens to most of us in life we can't really connect with hashd and rla who has a really interesting piece number 18 um maybe we'll read a little bit of it because and I drew you a very crude picture on page seven uh of what I think he's trying to say um which you can make of this picture whatever you like but I'll explain it to you in a minute look at what he says in number 18 now this is R desla RAV desla is Iconic in modern yeshivish if you like contemporary yish ASA and again he's not coming from the same worldview as the rambam I don't want to make everyone out to be the same he's coming from a cabalistic worldview he's coming from the from from from the Von from the but in practice he says when it comes toh we come out around about the same thing he says and he he entitles this in this is a very complicated matter we'll never get it all clear I have to tell you this though there are two kinds of good let's just explain them briefly applies to somebody and who is the connected person for him an hasem someone who serves hasem for the purpose of serving hem with no alternative alterior motive he or she by their very choices and their actions they reveal God's glory in the world everything they do is for God's glory and they are people who are again who these people well are they maybe people that don't look as religious as you think I'm not getting into that but those people whoever they are are the people who have why is it called specific because it's directly focused on you as an individual Al that's why it is n is personal Providence and he says this is what's in the and this is very highly specified to your actions gives you everything you need and what you need you have and what you don't need what you don't have you don't need even when God says no to those people you can't have this when they think they need it it's not because it's bad it's because it's good because now taking it away from this person actually helps grow in the struggle Etc like we said before they look at their life they do CH fine so those people whoever they are have it General it's either for people who don't worship hasem at all they're completely unconnected or they do Mitzvah because they're just used to it they just kind of you know walk the walk but they don't really talk the talk without any internal real thought about it over to the second paragraph they don't reveal God in the world so God doesn't connect with them directly as much but and here's the key this individual who is disconnected or less connected they're really their life is to serve on some level the people whoever they are who are more connected because they need you so what's happening to you and me is happening to us not because of us but because of them okay let's carry on because our of these less connected people we're like for the real and this actually is very fundamental let me clarify this and this is the picture I'm drawn you think of it this way everybody in the world has a hashak clis okay animals people we all have a hashak clis and the hash hashak clis is a big picture the big picture could be a very big picture maybe in a 100,000 years God needs the continents of the world to be aligned this way not that way so the the plates have to move that causes tsunami and a big wave comes and kills hundreds of thousands of people that's called hhis because you don't know the big picture it has to be that way the rules of nature are worked to so that the big picture has to be served and everybody has a little bit of hashak pratis maybe more maybe less which is focused on them but then everybody has the hash pratis of everybody else so it's like a Vortex yeah I put here these little three little figurines so there's a little guy or woman on the left who has their own little hashak prus Vortex but they're not very connected so what's happening to them is not really much to do with them but they're caught up in the hash pratis Vortex of the medium of the bon in the middle because they have more Hask pratis which pulls the other people in and they're all caught up in the vortex of the hashak pro of the tadik who's pulling everybody in so when you miss the bus or the bus comes late or you miss an appointment or whatever it is and you say oh it's hash pratis the answer is yes it might be but nothing to do with you that bus had to be late for somebody else who you don't even know who you don't even see and it is Ash process Pro and I'm afraid to say you just had to miss the bus because of them and that's how it works once you start understanding this can you work this out every single one of us like we gravity is connecting me here with Mrs Israel you know there's a gravitational force that's pulling us together it's very small because we're both quite small compared to the earth and but it's there you can measure it if you so all of us are pulling every single other one of us into the hashak protis Vortex things are happening to me because of you and you and you and all of you and you are happen to because how are you going to measure that how do you ever then know when anything happens to you why it happened to you maybe it happened to you because of the big picture has maybe it happened to you because of somebody else who needs to see this because that'll affect their life and they will then become a doctor or a start a charity or a this or a that in the world you what can you do the answer is you can just say you know something I don't know I can't know but I'm just going to make something good come out of it I'm going to look at myself I'm going to see if to be better do better help people more Comfort the bereaved help the people who are sick pray for them dab for them start new things be stronger be more unified that's the only thing I can do because you don't know what hash protis is really telling you don't know and you're a fool if you think a person's a fool if you think that they can know and this is very upsetting and that's why Ron salic I quoted you a couple of times says when when when non-religious people uh talk about these things with great you know Vigor they they spout heresy and when religious people stand up off and talk about these things they spou stupidity they talk about hash PR as if they know what they're talking about this is about desler he says you don't know what you're talking about so stop talking about it talk about something else more interesting more useful more productive but he talk about yeah because he's trying to get you to understand it you know 911 an unbelievable impactful event a terrible terrible terrible tragedy on any level changed the world the world we live in for our lifetimes it impacted us a lot it solidified our decision to to make Aliyah etc etc there were people who were late for 9/11 late for the Twin Towers because they were daving SAS in SCH and because they got to work late they weren't killed now if I was one of those people I would for sure say this is Hash Pro I would for sure say there's a message in this there's something that means something I know a very K that was late for a flight it happened to him his car broke down he was in a snowstorm the flight missed the flight the flight crashed everybody was killed did he not take that true story I know the person you may know him as well does he not take as a life inspiration absolutely but what about like I said before all the people who ran into the Twin Towers to do the biggest mids for of all to save other people's lives the firefighters and the policemen and other people and the buildings fell on their heads and kill them all so that that's not you can't have your cake and eat it you can't say this is as but this we won't talk about it's just silly and people feel the silliness in it you know and what about the guy who was having an affair Midtown in a hotel yeah and and and he's calls him up half an hour after the building's coming out where are you where are you oh I'm at work oh you're at work you're at work oh that's interesting because work ain't there no more so that's proce the man is doing a terrible terrible AA his life was saved if you're going to start coming to conclusions you better start looking at the whole picture and the answer is therefore kazal is very clear Etc okay so we could talk a lot more about to me it looks to me a nigler it looks to me to be an open Miracle it looks to me to be like The Six Day War what but even The Six Day War you know if you look at people who live through the Six Day War they said there's no there's no way you can say that this is other than an open Miracle six days but then you look at some American Military assessments of how long do we think it would take the Jewish Army to defeat the Arab armies they did a prehensive strike and the the papers came out they said we take them about a week or two oh does that make any less than a miracle no but you could look at it in different ways I I I don't take it as not a miracle but all I know is I think that is a sign for me that I should have and that we should work together we should do all the things we need to do but I can't explain why everything's happening I'm not saying it's less of a ace but I can't explain it let's talk about the last thing anti theodicy which I think is very important the last thing p number seven at the bottom we'll give the last five six minutes to this uh of this especially after the Holocaust many thinkers we'll see R salvic was one of them but not the only one came to say unlike others who wanted to give explanations you know as I know after the Holocaust there were some people that said we can we can say it was this group of people or this group of people or or they said that there's a punishment or a Hest upon Him many people said you know something we can't say anything about why this happened the right reaction is not to try and justify it or explain it but is to move forward to the future we saw this even in kazal just before number 19 we'll read some of these final sources together it is impossible to overcome the hideousness of evil through philosophical speculative thought therefore Judaism determined that man will seek in vain for the solution to the problem of evil within the framework of speculative thought for he will never find it okay number 20 also from R Sal from C doic the well-known metaphysical problem arises yet again and the sufferer asks why Dost thou show me iniquity and behold us Mischief for the wicked doth best the righteous therefore right Goes Forth perverted okay forgive the old English however God does not address himself to this question the question of why a man receives no reply concerning it the question remains obscure and seated outside the domain of logical thought when the impulse of intellectual curiosity seizes hold of a person he ought to do no not but find strength and encouragement in his faith in the Creator and vidate God's judgment if we wish to probe deeply to question profoundly during a period of night marriage Terrors then we have to pose the question in a halakic form says Ras you know in his Essence man and ask what is the obligation incumbent upon the sufferer deriving from the suffering itself what is the response to this experience what commanding voice what normative principle arises out of the afflictions themselves then and only then will We rise from the depths of the Holocaust possessed of a heightened spiritual stature and this is how the Jewish people as a whole reacted most of the Jewish people did not dissolve in a in a in a in a terror of like why why did this happen they said we need to rebuild we need to be survivors we need to recreate and the Jewish people did this that in many ways is no less of a miracle what happened in the 50 years following the Holocaust than what happened in the terrible terrible destruction and they followed this approach don't ask why ask what now number 21 Judaism did not approach the problem of evil under the specul speculative metaphysical aspect for such an inquiry would be a futile undertaking for as long as the human mind is unable to embrace Creation in its entirety to gain an insight into the very essence and purposive of being purposiveness of being as such he would not succeed in its attempt to resolve the Dilemma of evil the latter is interwoven Into The Very fabric of reality and cannot be understood outside its total ontological configuration that's a very important point the suffering that we experience is interwoven in reality we're foolish if we think we can live a life to avoid it it's just not real job was in error because he tried to grasp the nature of evil therefore Judaism has recommended that the metaphysical in quiry be replaced by the halakic ethical gesture man should not ask why evil he should rather raise the question what am I supposed to do if confronted with evil how should I behave viav evil instead of philosophizing about the nature of Evil Within the framework of a theodicy Judaism wants menant to fight it relentlessly and to convert it into a constructive force and and I think bashem we should be very proud of the fact that we've done this over the last year a lot of incredibly constructive things now there's a lot of work to do there's a lot of work to do but I think we all know what we have to do we just have to do it the unity and the and the daving we need to do that and he says that's the response last couple of sources 22 we have never answered the question of why evil exists there is no answer every philosopher who has tried to write a theodicy has failed including my modes in his gu to the perplexed but the Jew always asks how am I supposed to act in the face of evil when confronted with fronted by evil and the last two sources are from other talum if you like of RAV salvic in this issue Ravin 21 he's talking about the Tsunami remember the tsunami in in minutes killed hundreds of thousands of people which for Ravin is a bigger question of suffering than than man's evil against man if people commit acts of atrocities against others then you can say well that was their choice it's nothing to do with God but what are you going to say with a tsunami so sayra the message that arises in the wake of the events of the 20th century is that we have no business poking our noses into the why in the context of such questions what is required of us is absolute humility we have no business explaining or pretending to explain things that cannot be explained we must remember kaz's teaching concerning bam who thought that he understood God's Supreme wisdom the gamorra derides him this person who claimed to know God's mind could not could he not could not understand his donkey's mind this pretentiousness moral philosophical and religious pretentiousness we totally reject so when anyone understands this is what God is telling you I always like to respond you know something the only person in theak who knows what God is telling us is Bam who doesn't even know what his donkey's doing one of my favorite lines in millad Esther you know the Jews there's been a decree of death on the Jews it's terrible it's it's a disaster what are we going to do oh the queen of Persia happens to be Jewish and is the favorite queen of I mean is there any more obvious process than that like every Rabbi I know today will be saying it's it's obvious God what does m say to her when he says to her this is your moment he says who knows every when I know today would know and yet morai doesn't know because he's saying I'm not trying to pretend I understand how this is happening or why this is happening but I know this you got to act and you got to act now me your day it's the best line to me in the whole of the Milla and finally let's end with Rabbi sex number 24 the religious question is therefore not why did this happen but What then shall we do the religious response is not to seek to understand thereby to accept we are not God instead we are the people he has called on us we are the people he has called on to be his Partners in the work of creation the only adequate religious response is to say God I do not know why this terrifying disaster has happened but I do know what you want of us to help The Afflicted Comfort the bereaved send healing to his in the injured and Aid those who have lost their livelihoods and homes he could be speaking to us right now okay we cannot understand God but we can strive to imitate love and care and honestly I think we could have just had these last four sources for the last four weeks and just left all the L behind uh quite honestly I think that would have been enough and we could have talked about something else but now that we've talked about that uh let us think about that move on to other things please God we should have the that we need and continue to give other people that too