The Ultimate Question

The Chachum and the Yirei Elokim have it out in perek 9. Both bring up very reasonable arguments about faith and good and evil. First they fight over the source of wisdom. While they both agree that wisdom must be used to find meaning in life, they disagree over where that wisdom stems from. The Chachum says that his wisdom comes from his own knowledge, intellect, and morals while the Yirei Elokim maintains that all wisdom comes from G-d. G-d is the only one who knows what is moral, because morality comes from Him. Therefore, the Yirei Elokim explains that we must be obedient to G-d because we are accountable for our actions and will be judged by Him. The Chachum finds this to be ridiculous. He asks how it makes sense that people are judged only after they die? This encourages people to be evil because they don't see man getting judged or punished for his actions. Both attempt to answer the question of whether or not man is accountable for his actions. And why is this such a hotly debated topic? Because everyday we see bad things happening to good people and good things happening to bad people. What's the point of being good if bad things will happen to you anyway? Is there even a God if that happens? Why do bad things happen to good people (and vice versa)? This is the underlying question that the Chachum and the Yirei Elokim struggle with.

I am going to give some possible solutions to this incredibly difficult issue in Judaism. This question alone can make or break a person's faith. Many people turn away from G-d after a tragedy, wondering how G-d could let this happen. Last year, in Jewish Life & Faith, we did a whole unit on this one question. I will give one or two answers that I liked the most that we came up with. I will also give the answer that the Yirei Elokim gives the Chachum in pasukim 12-13. Lastly, I will offer a solution that I have just found online after some research. Many answers are given, but this one I felt was the best.

1) From The Yirei Elokim- His answer is less of an answer to the question I posed above, but more to why we should even try to be good people when it does not even seem like they get any reward for it in the end. After all, we see bad things happening to good people and good things happening to bad people so why shouldn't we just sin? He answers the Chachum in pasukim 12-13 by saying that G-d does have a reason for prolonging Mishpat. You might think that just because we are not judged till after death that there is no reason to be good and follow the mitzvot, but that is not the case. Judgment is prolongs judgement because He is giving the wicked a chance to do Teshuva. In the end, though, the G-d fearing people are rewarded and the wicked are punished.

2) From JL&F- Two of my favorite answers that we read in this class came from the Malbim and Ramban. These are two of the more famous answers to this question. The Malbim explains that there is no instant gratification in Judaism. Like we talked about in class, we are not struck by lightening the second we do something wrong and we are not given $1,000 when we do something right. Some people feel like this way might be better..then at least we'd know when we did something wrong/right and people would be more willing to do the right thing. The Malbim explains that that is not the ideal situation, though. The world is set up this way for a reason. If the world was set up like this (with instant gratification) then people would not do the right thing for the sake of G-d/because G-d told them to, they would just do it out of fear of getting punished. There would be real significance or value to doing the right thing--all people would do it just to get the instant reward and therefore the number of actual good people would be fewer. In the end, all wicked people are punished and all righteous people get their reward--even if they have to wait for it (similar to what the Yirei Elokim said).

The Ramban also gives an interesting answer. Similar to the Chachum, he says that all people sin. Even the people we call "good" have sinned before. And as we all know, when we sin we get punished. The opposite is true as well. All people do good. Even the people we call "bad" have done some good at some point. And if we do good, we will be rewarded. Since all people sin, all people must be punished at some point and since all people do good deeds, all people must be rewarded at some point. Since Olam HaZeh is finite (doesn't last forever), it is better for the good people to be punished there and rewarded in Olam HaBah where their rewards will be infinite. Evil people will get their rewards in this world where their rewards will only be ephemeral, but their punishments will be carried out in Olam HaBah where they will be infinite.

3) From Rabbi Aron Moss- Rabbi Moss has a very interesting response to this question. Rather than giving an answer, he asks another question. Why would you want to know the answer? He says that you are better off with the question than the answer. All people should be bothered by this question, and it would be even worse if we weren't bothered by it. When are people not bothered by something? When we understand it. I, for one, can say that I get very upset when I can't figure out an answer to a math question, but when I finally understand how it works, it does not upset me anymore. If we were to understand why bad things happen to good, innocent people then we would not sympathize for them. In fact, we would feel nothing at all. If this question was answered, we would make peace with the suffering of innocent, good people. Is that what we want? Do we want to look at a dying child and be okay with it?! An explanation to all of this suffering would alleviate the pain we feel and the empathy we feel for others. So do we really want an answer? That is the more important question.

I understand that this is a hard topic to deal with. What do you guys think about it? Which response was your favorite? Do you think we should have an answer to why good people suffer?