Judaisms Beliefs on Suffering :: essays research papers

Judaisms beliefs on suffering by Alex Barnett Why do the innocent suffer? This question has been asked for ages. Jewish sources, from the earliest to the latest, have tried themselves to answer this. It occurs to every single person with an interest in religion or not. We all know cases of good people who suffer terrible pains for no obvious reason. From a religious side of life this disturbs me because it seems to contradict certain basic Jewish beliefs. In particular, we believe: God is omniscient (He knows everything), God is omnipotent (He can do anything), and God is just. If these beliefs are right then how is it possible that innocent people suffer? In this essay I am going to briefly tell you what Judaism says about the concept of suffering and then I?m going to attempt explaining the two main explanations! The firstly and the most widely used answer across many religions is ?We simply do not know. Our rabbis (teachers) tell us that god?s logic and actions are way, way, way more advanced than us, physical human beings would ever be able, even to attempt trying to understand. We simply will never understand until we meet the big guy in heaven! Also some people although may seem innocent may actually not be so great and are punished for the things they do wrong. For me in Judaism by far the more impressive explanation is free will, God made Satan, he is not a rebellious angel. God created both good and evil. The Bible says so, in Isaiah 45:?God created the universe because God wanted to do good.? So there had to be people to receive that goodness. But God does not want to just give away good as a present. God wants people to appreciate it. Something you get for free you do not appreciate. And in fact, if you got something amazingly good for free, and you were allowed to enjoy it for all eternity, you would not appreciate it. If you didn't work for it, you don't deserve it. So G-d decided that people would have to work for it, and receive the ultimate goodness as a reward for hard work. People are tempted every day by their yetzer tov and yetzer horah, whether to do good or bad things, you need to overcome your yetzer horah to become a great person and receive reward in the afterlife. Say, for example, you have a desire to tell harmful gossip about someone.