Dear Friends:
This week’s Torah portion pointblank asserts one of the most difficult themes in all of Torah, all of Bible, and all of religious discourse: reward and punishment. It commences:
“If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, I will grant your rains in their season… peace in your land…” (Leviticus 26:1-6)
Clearly, here is reward. Follow the commands and all good things will result. Then, the text continues:
“And… if you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you sevenfold… I will smite you… loose wild beasts against you…lay your cities in ruin…” (Leviticus 26:18-31)
Clearly, this text, which is only a portion of the punishments promised, reveals the harsh decree for failure to follow God’s commands.
Of course, for centuries and in modernity, we have asked how this can be squared with episodes when the good have suffered and the depraved have prospered. Rabbi Harold Kushner’s bestseller, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, attempted to explain that God was not all-knowing nor all-powerful, but that randomness was a feature of our world. Yet, it did little to quell the ongoing argument. Especially, how could one explain the opposite: when good things happen to bad people?
Rabbi Gunther W. Plaut, the editor of the Reform Movement’s Chumash, our Torah Commentary, taught that the Torah was addressing collective responsibility – that the nature or character of a community allows that people or nations benefit or fail collectively, dependent on their character. He wrote, “As long as people thought in terms of collective responsibility, the problem could somehow be managed. For, if a nation was predominantly righteous and therefore prosperous, even the undeserving citizens might share its good fortunes. And, if national wickedness entailed national disaster, some of the virtuous minority might get hurt in the general crash.” (The Torah Commentary, p. 874)
However, Plaut acknowledged that the explanation crumbles when it is applied to individuals. Actuarial science can explain how a large cohort might live, but in that cohort, any individual could either go along with the trend or be an outlier. The Book of Job elegantly displays the anguish of a righteous man who is unjustly punished, and for millennia, we have read the text seeking inspiration or comfort for our own misfortunes. In antiquity, it was easier to consign suffering to a Godly whim. Not so, today. Given the experience of the centuries, with the Black Death, the Expulsion from Spain, and the Holocaust, no simple theology holds water. There is no plausible explanation for why an entire people, nor any one individual, merits unjust punishment from God, or from the way of the world.
So, we are stuck in the conundrum of our Torah portion and inexplicable reward and punishment. Perhaps Kushner had it right all along: randomness prevails. But, can we accept that? Hence, we keep studying Torah!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
This week’s Torah portion pointblank asserts one of the most difficult themes in all of Torah, all of Bible, and all of religious discourse: reward and punishment. It commences:
“If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, I will grant your rains in their season… peace in your land…” (Leviticus 26:1-6)
Clearly, here is reward. Follow the commands and all good things will result. Then, the text continues:
“And… if you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you sevenfold… I will smite you… loose wild beasts against you…lay your cities in ruin…” (Leviticus 26:18-31)
Clearly, this text, which is only a portion of the punishments promised, reveals the harsh decree for failure to follow God’s commands.
Of course, for centuries and in modernity, we have asked how this can be squared with episodes when the good have suffered and the depraved have prospered. Rabbi Harold Kushner’s bestseller, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, attempted to explain that God was not all-knowing nor all-powerful, but that randomness was a feature of our world. Yet, it did little to quell the ongoing argument. Especially, how could one explain the opposite: when good things happen to bad people?
Rabbi Gunther W. Plaut, the editor of the Reform Movement’s Chumash, our Torah Commentary, taught that the Torah was addressing collective responsibility – that the nature or character of a community allows that people or nations benefit or fail collectively, dependent on their character. He wrote, “As long as people thought in terms of collective responsibility, the problem could somehow be managed. For, if a nation was predominantly righteous and therefore prosperous, even the undeserving citizens might share its good fortunes. And, if national wickedness entailed national disaster, some of the virtuous minority might get hurt in the general crash.” (The Torah Commentary, p. 874)
However, Plaut acknowledged that the explanation crumbles when it is applied to individuals. Actuarial science can explain how a large cohort might live, but in that cohort, any individual could either go along with the trend or be an outlier. The Book of Job elegantly displays the anguish of a righteous man who is unjustly punished, and for millennia, we have read the text seeking inspiration or comfort for our own misfortunes. In antiquity, it was easier to consign suffering to a Godly whim. Not so, today. Given the experience of the centuries, with the Black Death, the Expulsion from Spain, and the Holocaust, no simple theology holds water. There is no plausible explanation for why an entire people, nor any one individual, merits unjust punishment from God, or from the way of the world.
So, we are stuck in the conundrum of our Torah portion and inexplicable reward and punishment. Perhaps Kushner had it right all along: randomness prevails. But, can we accept that? Hence, we keep studying Torah!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
