RMPS - Int2/Higher - World Religions - Judaism - Education Scotland

Suffering is at times inexplicable
THE CAUSE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION
There are many occasions when we see apparently innocent people
suffering as a result of natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes or
drought and famine and we wonder how this can be if God is just and
merciful. These are the actions of nature over which no one has any real
control, and they may affect large numbers of people. Sometimes large
numbers of innocent people suffer as a result of human action such as
aeroplane accidents or shipping disasters or fires and, of course,
because of war. Sometimes it is individuals who suffer for no apparent
reason.
Judaism tries to answer this question in a number of ways. The Book of
Job in the Hebrew Bible tells the story of a very good man who is tested
by the loss of his livelihood, his family and his health. He looks for a
reason and can find none, but he refuses to lose his faith in God and
eventually family and fortune are restored to him. Here the reason
which is put to us is that God was testing this outstanding man; that He
had faith in Job and that this faith was truly vindicated despite all the
pressures put upon him.
Judaism also has a belief in the world to come, that this world is but the
vestibule to another better place where the righteous finally get their
true reward, a reward denied to the wicked. It is then suggested that the
wicked may seem to prosper because they are getting their reward in
this world for the good deeds they may have done (Judaism does not
believe that anyone is wholly evil), so that nothing is owed to them in
the world to come. Conversely, suffering is the punishment of the good
for sins which even good people have committed in this world, so as to
allow their reward in the world to come to be untarnished.
Judaism also recognises that these explanations are not entirely
satisfactory. Accepting that God is both just and merciful, it seeks to
explain the problem of suffering by postulating that we are indeed
incapable of understanding all the actions of an all-knowing and allpowerful
God. We neither have the information, the knowledge nor the
intellect to fathom the reasons for all of God’s actions. This requires of
us an act of faith and of trust in God, which is the decision that Job came
to in the end.
We must accept that the problem of suffering is one for which we have
no complete answer.
RMPS: WORLD RELIGIONS – JUDAISM (INT 2, H) 27
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