So..Does Everything Happen for a Reason or Not?

         This week in Megillot, we discussed Perek Gimmel and the many questions that it raises. The first and foremost question that we addressed was- who is the Gever???

         We saw two suggestions, one from Rashi and one from Ibn Ezra. Rashi suggested that the Gever is simply Yirmiyahu speaking from a more personal perspective instead of the previous objective view. He finds evidence in that there are similar phrases used in this Perek that have been used in other books of Yirmiyahu. However, in class, we decided that this didn't really make sense, as Yirmiyahu still wrote Eicha. Ibn Ezra suggested that the Gever represents the "universal man", or the person who suffers. He finds proof in that this Perek doesn't explicitly describe the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and therefore it can be seen as a generic account of suffering.

          Perek Gimmel was split into three sections, each with subsections. The first subsection of the first section is pasukim 1-11. In this section, the Gever believes that the world is chaotic and arbitrary and it seems like he is too self-absorbed in his feeelings of pain and entrapment to understand that his suffering could be because of him. Moving on to the next section, pasukim 12-18, the Gever still seems very deep in his suffering, believing that the destruction and pain was targeted, which he believes makes it cruel. He seems to lose all hope in G-d.

         In the next two sections, an odd transition occurs. In pasukim 19-20, the Gever sort of takes a step back. He had been complaining about everything that "He" did and everything that came from "Him", and finally, in pasuk 18, he said "G-d". This causes him to stop and reflect. He remembers the pain and the bad experiences and expresses his bitterness that it all comes from G-d. In pasukim 20-24, the Gever realizes that G-d can also be good, which gives him hope that maybe his relationship with G-d can be repaired.

         In the last two sections, the Gever comes to an important conclusion. In pasukim 27-30, he recognizes that sometimes suffering can be good and maybe G-d inflicts pain for a reason. In pasukim 31-39, he decides that everything, both good and bad, comes from G-d. He isn't cruel and He only punishes if man sins.

         Paul Thagard, psychologytoday.com, discusses whether or not things happen for a reason. He suggests, and I'm not saying that I agree with this, that there is one problem with believing that G-d does everything for a reason: There is no evidence that things stem from the fact that G-d wants it to happen, other that they happened. He also writes, "The idea that chance is an objective property of the universe was advocated in the nineteenth century by the great American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, who called this doctrine tychism, from the Greek word for chance...is often interpreted as implying that some events such as radioactive decay are inherently unpredictable." This basically means that events do not happen by chance. However, he continues on to say that many events should been seen as accidents.

Link: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201002/does-everything-happen-reason-0

Everything Comes From G-d

In this week's Megillot class, we discussed the first half of Perek Gimel. In Perek Gimel, there is a radical change in speaker, either thought to be Yirmiyahu (Rashi) or a "universal man" directed towards any man who has suffered (Ibn Ezra). Anywho, the Gever begins in a state of depression and feels entrapped/encircled/walled up, due to the fact that he feels he's fighting a losing battle. The Gever is stumbling in the darkness and cannot find his way. The Gever concludes that there is an arbitrary nature to the destruction, and that his prayers are being shut out.

However, he quickly transforms and adopts the idea that G-d's anger was intentional, and the pain that He inflicted on the Gever was intentional, thus eliminating the feeling of chaos/arbitrariness/randomness. And he therefore concludes that he is finished with a G-d who could inflict pain. He's given up hope in G-d. In Pesukim 19-20, he pleads that the reader remember all the pain that his "nefesh" (soul) suffered at the hands of G-d.

Then, we encounter the complete transition of the Gever. He begins his next words a changed man, with the idea of perhaps repairing his relationship with G-d imbued in him. Hashem has the ability to act with chesed and mercy. Hashem is good to those who have hope and faith in Him. Therefore, if it's deserved, maybe it's good to suffer. Then, the Gever concludes that G-d doesn't afflict man to be spiteful or cruel, but rather, G-d only punishes man when man sins.

So, let's review the evolution of the Gever. At first (Pesukim 1-11), he believed the world was chaotic and arbitrary, and adopted a self-absorbed attitude. Then (Pesukim 12-18), he became convinced that the destruction and pain was targeted, which makes it cruel, and he loses all hope in G-d. In Pesukim 19-20 (which serve as a transition to the next part of the Perek), he asks that his pain be remembered, and expresses his bitterness that this is all from G-d. After transforming, he declares that G-d can be good, and this idea might give him hope that his relationship will be repaired (21-26). Later, he considers suffering to be good, as there might be a reason to why G-d inflicts pain. In his last hurrah (for now), he understands that everything, both good and bad, comes from G-d. He's not cruel and He only punishes if man sins.

I think that the Gever is raising such an important idea. Oftentimes, when tragedy occurs, we immediately attribute it to G-d. However, when we are prosperous, we fail to realize that G-d is behind it all. That's precisely the point of Kohelet, due to the fact that when gathering the harvest, it is easy to believe that man is the source of his success and to completely ignore the fact that it was Hashem who provided him with his array of crops. Sefer Kohelet teaches us that G-d is truly in control and that man is beneath Him. This is the reason for why we read Sefer Kohelet on Sukkot. Eicha also further instills this concept. Our belief in G-d needs to be eternal; Judaism is not a pick and choose religion. Therefore, when the Gever realizes this, he's able to re-evaluate his actions, and shows even further how merciful and just G-d is.

Hashem only punishes us if we deserve it, but perhaps the most unique and special part is that He's willing to take us back. G-d never rejects us. As we saw in Devarim, we will always be able to return to G-d. Suffering does not have to be permanent, and the faster we realize what we've done, we can proceed and re-establish our connection to G-d.

Perek 3-- Maybe all the suffering will eventually make sense

After going our Chavruta sheets, this week we went over the first part of perek gimmel. In perek gimmel, the Gever, a random man was introduced. According to Ibn Ezra, the approach we learned in class, the Gever represents universal man. The Gever is a general reflection and response to man's suffering. In this section we see the Gever's response to suffering.
     In 1-11 the Gever is so caught up in how the world is so chaotic and random that he cannot even grasp the bigger picture. In this section he is self absorbed just focusing on HIS pain.
     In passukim 12-18 he recognizes that the pain is targeted which causes him to lose all hope in G-d.
     In passukim 19-20 he focuses on pain and horror. He is upset knowing that it all comes from G-d. This is the start of his transformation. Realizing that G-d causes the pain is key to the transformation.
     In passukim 21-26 he realizes that if G-d does all the bad then he also has to do the good because there are some beautiful things. He looks to this thought to give him hope that he can fix his relationship with Hashem.
     In 23-30 he finally realizes that maybe there is a reason when people suffer. Maybe they did something and deserve it.
     In the last section, 31-39 the Gever sees that good and bad both come from G-d. He does have a good side and does not just bring pain across people for no reason.

I had a big question after this. People suffer constantly even if they do not deserve it so how does it make sense that people are only punished and suffer when they do not deserve it?
       Soon after we learned in Devarim that G-d said if people do not follow him and if it gets bad enough he will do all of these things that he ended up doing to Yerushalayim. He said that people would collectively suffer and he would not judge the people individually.
 This gives me a little bit of justice explaining why the children and innocent ones were punished, but what about today? People continually suffer even if they do not deserve it but there is no reason. I seem to suffer with this question constantly and cannot find an answer.
 This made me remember something that I learned a while back ago. I learned that everything that G-d has done to us was shown somewhere back in the torah but we did not realize what it meant until we somehow connected it to the certain event. In the perek in Devarim we see that everything it said happened to Yerushalayim, Like most of my blogs, I know it does not connect perfectly because in Devarim it was a warning and in Perek Gimmel of Eicha it was a result, but I thought it was pretty similar. I also am applying the whole " Everything G-d does is hinted in the Torah" thing to people's suffering in general. Maybe one day we will realize that G-d hinted the suffering in the Torah and we did not realize or maybe we will learn that suffering in general is like a "reward." It does not make any sense now because we do not understand our suffering but maybe one day we will see it was hinted in the Torah and everything will make sense. I do not know, just a thought. Good shabbos to all!

          The sefer uses many words that each have so much detail, starting from the very beginning. The first passuk says that Yerushaliam is "badad" alone. When we look closer at this word we see that it is mainly used in tanach in reference to tzora'at. So why is it being used here? 

          In the case of tzora'at the person who says the bad things is punished by having to be by themselves "badad" for a week. They are punished this way because they have brought it upon themselves, they did something to deserve this. Similarly we can see that Yerushaliam is punished because of what she did and she brought it upon herself. Now she needs to be alone. 

          We see from this how much meaning and expression Yirmiyaho puts into each word and each passuk which can be very hard. It's easier to express emotion when you are talking to someone in person with things like tone of voice and body language, but if you are sending a text or writing an e-mail you are limited in way of expression. We can see the extent that Yirmiyaho goes to, to get his point across and he really helps us understand and feel what is happening.   

A Cruel G-d?

In class we struggled with the idea that G-d would punish not only those who sinned, but the completely innocent, the babies and children.

To try to reconcile this idea, we discussed how Devarim Perekim 28-30 G-d goes into explicit detail about what will happen when (implying that it is inevitable) Bnei Yisrael sins. He says that every single person in the nation will suffer, not just those who sinned. It describes exactly what the people experienced upon the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash and Yerushalayim.

We talked about how these Pesukim are sort of an excuse, for lack of a better word, for why G-d could punish everyone, including the innocent. However, is this supposed to keep our stomachs from churning when we hear about how the women would eat their own children out of starvation? Why does the fact that G-d previously promised this suffering make it any better that He would punish the innocent children? In my opinion, all that this tells us is that he decided long before the destruction of Yerushalayim that everyone would suffer. This still seems cruel to me. I don't think that the fact that He warned the people in the Torah that this destruction and suffering would take place changes how cruel  and merciless it seems to be.

Thoughts, people? I'm interested to see what y'all think. 

The Aftermath of Trauma

This week, we learned about the steps someone goes through after they experience trauma, and how Eicha is not only about the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash,but about anyone who has faced trauma.

The steps are shock, sadness, anger, blame, and then either depression or re-evaluation of life.

It is made clear in Eicha, that Yerushaliam has no one to comfort her and help her, but what if someone goes through tragedy, who does have someone comforting them.

If someone has someone to support them, like a friend or family member, after tragedy occurs than will they be able to skip some of these steps of moving on? Or will they at least be able to speed up the process? And if so, how can Eicha be about anyone in the post-trauma stage?

Revelation

Although I was not in class when we did the chavruta assignment for Perek ג, I heard a lot of classmates say that they thought the perek was about the "bipolar angry man" who was having some serious issues as he tried to come to terms with the destruction and his anger. Although it was not explicitly stated until passuk י״ח, we inferred that the Gever was ranting at G-d.

In פסוק י״ח, the Gever's perspective did a 360. Once he said, "I'm done with G-d," he took a step back. In פסוקים י״ט-כ׳, the Gever realized that, if G-d is in control of the bad things in life, He must also control the good things in life. From that point on, the Gever's internal dialogue turned into a discussion of his past actions and his punishment. All of this was spoken about in the context of G-d existence. The conclusion that this Perek leads us to draw is that our relationship with G-d is complicated but mendable. There is still hope.

Although we said that this section (יח-כ) is the epicenter of the Sefer because it's the middle section of the middle Perek, I don't think we emphasized the amazingness of the Gever's realization. I know for a fact that we have all pondered the following question at some point in our lives:

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Those of us who have been through an emotional trauma will know how hard it is to come to terms with what has happened and cope with it internally. We talked about the steps people take when responding to a trauma. Mrs. Perl even mentioned that people sometimes get stuck after the blame phase; the only way they would be able to move on is through getting a new perspective. I know from personal experience that moving on after a tragedy is one of the hardest things to do and I have seen people reject G-d because they can't accept that something this horrible could happen to them.

In recent news, there has been one particular story that caught my eye. It caught my eye because of the parents' incredible response to the loss of their children. Last week in Israel, the four children from the Gross family were poisoned with toxic insecticide that was inadvertently left in their house. The two daughters died soon after exposure and the two sons were taken to the hospital. In light of the loss of two children and the potential loss of two more, the parents made the following plea to Am Yisrael.

It's extremely moving to see how these parents have held on to their faith even through the hard times. I hope everyone can draw inspiration from their reaction to this trauma and see that we can blame G-d in the moment, but as she said, "Everything G-d does is for the best." We may not understand it or like it, but at least we can take the new perspective and move forward.