Dear Friends,
“It all happens for a reason!”
If I had a dime for every time I have heard someone offer this consolation, I think I‘d be richer than Rothschild.
And I don’t believe it. Mostly. How can someone truly justify great suffering—a tragic disease, a pandemic, a terrorist strike, 240 hostages—for the sake of some ex post facto perceived learning? How trite! Yet, it strikes me again and again how often the consolation is, “It all happens for a reason!" is proffered.
I think we crave consolation. We yearn for hidden rationale in an otherwise irrational and abhorrent situation. We like to think that the Holy One is pulling puppet strings and embedding some secret benefit, and if we are sufficiently patient or look hard enough, we may discover it. Until then, though, I submit, we suffer.
So, too, with Joseph’s family, when he was sold down to Egypt as a slave. For years, he was either enslaved, imprisoned, or serving Pharaoh, and his family back in Canaan had no news of his whereabouts (like that in today’s hostage drama in Gaza). In our Torah portion this week, after Joseph manipulated his brothers who had come soliciting food from the stores of Egypt, he finally revealed himself with great passion and emotion. His dumbfounded brothers stood shocked. Joseph feared that his brothers were frightened of the vizier’s retribution for their earlier betrayal of him, so Joseph offered the following explanation: “Don’t be chagrined because you sold me here, for it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. God sent me ahead of you to assure your survival in the land…” (Genesis 44:5, 7).
Joseph allayed his brothers’ fears by declaring that the anguish and pain were all part of God’s designs. And they accepted it—mostly. The Torah indicates that they did harbor some worries that once their father died, Joseph would unleash vengeful fury on the older, deceitful siblings. Nevertheless, it was Joseph’s fervent belief that God’s benevolent hand was behind all the suffering he had endured.
It was for a reason!
Hence, the protestations that I hear today have solid roots in our tradition. Yet, there is a significant difference between the assertions of the biblical patriarch, Joseph, who distilled God’s messages, and any one of us who is lost and befuddled amid today’s trauma or turmoil. Today, we are grasping at straws, seeking justification, unable to accept mere randomness or even ugly evil for what it is.
If only there was a reason!
Sometimes, there might be a reason. Oftentimes, there is not.
With a measure of hope, Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
“It all happens for a reason!”
If I had a dime for every time I have heard someone offer this consolation, I think I‘d be richer than Rothschild.
And I don’t believe it. Mostly. How can someone truly justify great suffering—a tragic disease, a pandemic, a terrorist strike, 240 hostages—for the sake of some ex post facto perceived learning? How trite! Yet, it strikes me again and again how often the consolation is, “It all happens for a reason!" is proffered.
I think we crave consolation. We yearn for hidden rationale in an otherwise irrational and abhorrent situation. We like to think that the Holy One is pulling puppet strings and embedding some secret benefit, and if we are sufficiently patient or look hard enough, we may discover it. Until then, though, I submit, we suffer.
So, too, with Joseph’s family, when he was sold down to Egypt as a slave. For years, he was either enslaved, imprisoned, or serving Pharaoh, and his family back in Canaan had no news of his whereabouts (like that in today’s hostage drama in Gaza). In our Torah portion this week, after Joseph manipulated his brothers who had come soliciting food from the stores of Egypt, he finally revealed himself with great passion and emotion. His dumbfounded brothers stood shocked. Joseph feared that his brothers were frightened of the vizier’s retribution for their earlier betrayal of him, so Joseph offered the following explanation: “Don’t be chagrined because you sold me here, for it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. God sent me ahead of you to assure your survival in the land…” (Genesis 44:5, 7).
Joseph allayed his brothers’ fears by declaring that the anguish and pain were all part of God’s designs. And they accepted it—mostly. The Torah indicates that they did harbor some worries that once their father died, Joseph would unleash vengeful fury on the older, deceitful siblings. Nevertheless, it was Joseph’s fervent belief that God’s benevolent hand was behind all the suffering he had endured.
It was for a reason!
Hence, the protestations that I hear today have solid roots in our tradition. Yet, there is a significant difference between the assertions of the biblical patriarch, Joseph, who distilled God’s messages, and any one of us who is lost and befuddled amid today’s trauma or turmoil. Today, we are grasping at straws, seeking justification, unable to accept mere randomness or even ugly evil for what it is.
If only there was a reason!
Sometimes, there might be a reason. Oftentimes, there is not.
With a measure of hope, Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn