On Suffering and Evil

Since time immemorial mankind has struggled to make sense of suffering and evil and how to square it with an omnipotent, omniscient and good God. Leibniz even gave it a name—a theodicy. Many have said that if this world is all there is then its nigh impossible to see divine justice. The immortality of the soul and/or eventual bodily resurrection go a long way towards allowing justice to prevail. R. Saadia Gaon places emphasis on the olam hatechiya whereas R. Yehuda Halevi accentuates hasharas hanefesh. Ramban synthesizes them. R. Yosef Albo writes that the how isn't as important as subscribing to the idea that HaShem will ultimately square accounts one way or another. Rambams position is that one participates in a bodiless afterlife commensurate with ones knowledge of the divine, seemingly not subscribing to traditional notions of s'char/v'onesh (see Ramban in shaar hagemul). Sefer Iyov, wholly devoted to dealing with this issue, does not offer either hasharas hanefesh or techiya as solutions to the problem, ending rather with vivid illustrations of Gods overwhelming creative power and benevolence, ostensibly communicating that theres no reason to worry about HaShem getting this one wrong, despite how things may appear. Tanach on the whole doesn't really mention either the souls immortality or the body's resurrection, with just a sprinkling of allusions here and there (rishonim offer various approaches to deal with these omissions). The Talmud ascribes to Moshe the desire to understand what appeared to him to be tzadik v'ra lo/rasha v'tov lo with HaShem declining to clue him in. The problem of evil and suffering is truly a vexing issue. Ultimately, it is the number one issue believers in an all powerful, knowing and benevolent God grapple with. Perhaps that is the significance of Chazal ascribing authorship of Iyov to Moshe (TB BB 15a): Moshe, who was introducing the idea of a God that is intimately involved with humanity, rewarding and punishing according to their deeds, needed to grapple with the apparent lack of justice like no one before him. After all the suggestions and attempts at explanation, an abiding faith and trust in a perfect God, who is full of love and does only good, coupled with the recognition that we humans may simply be unable to comprehend His ways, seems to be as good as it will get for the time being. As R Yannai states in Avos (4:15) אֵין בְּיָדֵינוּ לֹא מִשַּׁלְוַת הָרְשָׁעִים וְאַף לֹא מִיִּסּוּרֵי הַצַּדִּיקִים.

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