The other day I had the honour of spending the day with a group of Holocaust survivors. Myself and the talented Lev Taylor lead a Tu Bishvat Seder in the morning and I was touched by how warm and welcoming the group were to us, two (relatively) young rabbinical students.
In the afternoon we sat down with them to lunch and one of the group told me that, after the Holocaust, she no longer believed in God. She said no God would allow such a monstrous thing to befall people. She also said that since she stopped believing in God she felt that she had lost "her anchor".
This articulate woman then asked me, "how" God could allow things such as the Holocaust to happen?
Whilst I was glad that this lady was able to find some grounding in the Jewish world in which she now lived, I could feel her pain, anger and frustration towards God and her disbelief that people (like me) could champion such a God. I responded by saying that any attempt to justify or explain a 'Godly' reason for such terrible happenings was plain wrong. To even suggest a reason as to why a divine being could have allowed such an event was unhelpful and offensive. I said that she was entitled to her anger with, and disbelief of, such a deity.
Whilst my own notion of God differs greatly from that of this woman our conversation helped me to better understand the unfathomableness of human-inflicted pain and destruction.
As a future rabbi, I will act not as a spokesperson for God but strive to act as a helper to humanity. This brave lady and I concluded this part of our talk by smiling silently at one another before our conversation moved on to other matters...
In the afternoon we sat down with them to lunch and one of the group told me that, after the Holocaust, she no longer believed in God. She said no God would allow such a monstrous thing to befall people. She also said that since she stopped believing in God she felt that she had lost "her anchor".
This articulate woman then asked me, "how" God could allow things such as the Holocaust to happen?
Whilst I was glad that this lady was able to find some grounding in the Jewish world in which she now lived, I could feel her pain, anger and frustration towards God and her disbelief that people (like me) could champion such a God. I responded by saying that any attempt to justify or explain a 'Godly' reason for such terrible happenings was plain wrong. To even suggest a reason as to why a divine being could have allowed such an event was unhelpful and offensive. I said that she was entitled to her anger with, and disbelief of, such a deity.
Whilst my own notion of God differs greatly from that of this woman our conversation helped me to better understand the unfathomableness of human-inflicted pain and destruction.
As a future rabbi, I will act not as a spokesperson for God but strive to act as a helper to humanity. This brave lady and I concluded this part of our talk by smiling silently at one another before our conversation moved on to other matters...
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