Reflecting on Judaism

          Who would ask this question? I suggest that it is generally a person who believes in a personal God. A person who does not believe in God at all would ask ‘where was your God when….?’ A person who believes in a God that is not personal might find the question unnecessary. It is those who fall within the first category who have the greatest difficulty answering the question. In this context I am defining ‘A personal God’ as a God who predetermines the things that happen to a person during his lifetime.

          Under what circumstance does the question arise? Usually, when bad things happen to good, but not necessarily good, people. It might arise for example, when an innocent child dies, run over by a drunken driver. It might arise when a good and charitable person is unfortunate and loses his assets due to adverse trading conditions or fraud. It arose during the blockade before the establishment of the State of Israel, when a boat carrying refugees from Europe to Palestine sank because of British policy, which was to stop Jewish immigration.

          It is often asked when contemplating the Holocaust. How could a kind loving and caring God have allowed the indiscriminate slaughter of six million Jews? Good, bad, young, old, religious, irreligious, men women and children. All treated alike, apparently, without distinction.

          Why do people ask the question? It is because we are taught that God is a kind, loving, caring God, a God that deals justly with all people. Most people find it difficult to reconcile these characteristics and attributes with life’s experience as illustrated above.

          Many theories have been advanced to try to explain the Holocaust. Some say that the Jewish people were punished for their sins, but what sin could the Jewish people, collectively, have possibly committed to deserve the blanket, horrendous punishment meted out to them? 

          Some say that the sin was that many were attracted to Zionism and built the foundations of a State before the arrival of the Messiah thereby anticipating God’s work and for this they were punished.

          Others say that the sin was because the Jewish people did not seize the opportunity in the 1920s and 1930s to build the foundation of a State when they had the opportunity to do so and for this they were punished.

          Yet others say that it was because assimilation was rife throughout Europe in the years leading up to the Second World War and this was the sin for which they were punished.

          I personally find none of these theories satisfactory because by no stretch of the imagination can I conceive that the Holocaust, as the blanket punishment inflicted by a Just God, was appropriate for any of the alleged crimes. Although the Holocaust was the worst of similar occurrences, in magnitude, since the destruction of the second temple there have been other occurrences during the course of our history which should also prompt the question, where was God when…? and these in circumstances where the theories concerning Zionism or assimilation were not relevant. To give some examples:-

• The tens of thousands of good and observant Jews who were massacred during the Crusades.
• The tens of thousands of pious Jews who were massacred during the pogroms in medieval Europe even before assimilation became an issue.
• The tens of thousands of pious Jews who were massacred in North Africa by the Muslims over many centuries.
• The expulsion of the Jews from Spain which caused dramatic changes to the structure of Judaism with which we are still living.
• And there are many other examples.

          I find it difficult to accept the ‘assimilation’ theory as a reason for the Holocaust. Before the Second World War, there were three main concentrations of Jews. The first concentration was in Russia where many, if not most, supported the Communist regime from which the concept of God was entirely eliminated and where assimilation was rife. The second concentration was in the USA where the vast majority of Jews adhered to the Conservative or Reform movements and where assimilation was a growing problem. The third concentration was in Europe which contained the highest proportion, by far, of Orthodox Jews. If justice ruled and punishment was to be meted out accordingly to the seriousness of the sin, why were the European Jews the main target of Gods anger? Why not the Russian or American Jews who, according to the above criteria were more deserving of punishment?

          There is one explanation for the Holocaust which is, I suggest, more reasonable and logical, and which falls clearly within the normative teachings of Judaism i.e. ‘Freewill behaviour’. This explanation is one which many will find difficult to accept because it conflicts with other teachings, namely, that all is predetermined by God. We have been conditioned to accept the concept of predetermination by the many and varied petitional prayers found in our prayer books and by the words of the well-known saying ‘All is in the hands of God except the fear of God’.

          However, one of the fundamental beliefs of Judaism is that of Reward and Punishment. The Torah relates numerous occasions when persons do bad deeds and are punished and when they do good deeds they are rewarded. We are constantly told in the Torah that we have the ability to choose between doing good and doing evil and that we should choose correctly. This is logical, for if people are predetermined to do good why reward them? And if they are predetermined to do bad then why punish them?

          It follows that it was not God who predetermined the killing of the child; it was the freewill decision of the drunken driver who decided to drive when drunk. It was not God who predetermined the businessman’s failure; it was bad business decisions freely arrived at or because of some other human failing. It was not God who predetermined the sinking of the ship on the way to Palestine; it was the freewill decision of a British politician. If a person dies whilst participating in a dangerous sport such as mountaineering, it is not God who predetermines his death but his own freewill decision to participate.  

          And it was not God who predetermined the Holocaust; it was the freewill decision of the fanatical leaders of the German nation. To ask ‘Where was God when….’ in any of the above circumstances is to insult God who gifted to Humans the ability to make Free Will decisions. If we really believe that God wanted, should answer for, or be held responsible for the Holocaust, then Hitler was only doing God’s Will and he should be lauded, not condemned.

          How can we reconcile these two apparently conflicting theories? On the one hand I suggest that most of the bad things which happen to Man is the result of Man’s own freewill decisions and on the other hand we are taught that ‘All is in the hand of God except the fear of God’. Many Rabbis have given this problem much thought, the most prominent among them being Maimonides. He states that this teaching refers only to “those matters about which Man has no choice, such as his being tall or short, or a rainfall or drought, or the air being putrid or healthy, and so too with respect to everything in the world, except for the movement and the rest of man."

          In support of his statement Maimonides said  “the truth about which there is no doubt is that all of man’s actions are given over to him. If he wishes to act he does so, and if he does not wish to act he does not; there is no compulsion whatsoever upon him" and he gives various examples of which I quote a few.

          “ If Simon, the killer of Reuben, was inevitably compelled to kill, and the latter inevitably had to be killed, why should we punish Simon?"

          “ People often err about it and think that a man is compelled to perform some action which is in fact voluntary; for instance, marrying a certain lady or seizing a sum of money illegally. This is incorrect because if someone takes a woman by a marriage contract and betrothal and she is permitted to him and he marries her to be fruitful and to multiply, then this is fulfilling a commandment; God does not preordain performing a commandment. If there were some wickedness in marrying her, it would be a transgression; God does not preordain a transgression."

          “The same (principle) applies to a man who robs someone of his money or steals it, or deceives him about it and denies it and swears an oath to him about his money; God does not preordain a transgression."

          So I believe that the answer to the question, Where was God when…..? is, that He is where He always has been. He has blessed and bestowed on Man the gift of Freewill, which Man uses for better or for worse and God is not responsible for the outcome. This is the answer and it is an uncomfortable one to live with.

April 1999