First, I heard that there was a Muslim
cleric who declared that the devastation of Hurricane Katrina was punishment for
America's support of Israel. Then there was the Christian minister
who pronounced that this hurricane was a display of God's
wrath in response to the liberal support of gay
rights; a gay festival actually planned for New Orleans
for early September was deemed to further bolster this
claim. Of course, there was the other Christian minister
who maintained that it was punishment for the
legalization of abortion in the United States. Foolishness, all foolishness; we all know that only rabbis
are able to understand the real reason for such
destruction -- and how fortunate we are that, indeed,
some rabbis have shared their unique knowledge of the
reason(s) for this tragedy. One compared New Orleans to
Sodom explaining that this city of modern times was
destroyed for its sinfulness, just like the ancient
Biblical city. And then there were those rabbis who
explained that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment for
America's pressure on Israel to leave Gaza and
in retribution for the pain caused the residents of Gush
Katif. But then, why, in the first place, did the
residents of Gush Katif experience suffering and continue
to suffer? To combine the thoughts of these various
rabbis, we would find that the residents of Gush Katif
are being punished for the sins of New Orleans !
After all, many of the Gush Katif residents came
from America, the country of this sinful city (perhaps
some even came from New Orleans or, at least, visited
it).
Whenever disaster or tragedy strikes, there are those who
question: 'Where is God?' And then, there
are those who claim to have all the answers and know
exactly 'where God is.' God is deemed to communicate
through His actions -- both positive and negative -- but,
have you ever noticed that this communication always
seems to somehow fall on deaf ears? The ones who
need to hear the communication -- for example, the
sinners who are supposed to learn the evil of their ways
from the destruction of Katrina -- never seem to
get the message. And the ones who do understand
the message are the ones who already seem to
know the truth, and did not need this communication in
the first place.
Did this
Christian minister need God to communicate to him,
through the devastation of Katrina, the sinfulness of
homosexuality? Of course not; he already knew about this
sinfulness. Presumably, God must have been attempting to
communicate this truth to the liberal others who think a
gay lifestyle is a fine alternative. Yet, those who needed
to hear the message, the liberal supporters of gay
rights, did not get it; these individuals seem to have
some difficulty making this connection. Similarly, the
rabbis who felt the pain of Gush Katif did not need God
to tell them, through this hurricane, of the grave
transgression of the Israeli government. Yet somehow this
government still fails to learn this 'truth' when the
prophetic message from Katrina is so 'clear'. But who is
willing to argue that God is not clear in His
communications?
The above attempt at sarcasm is not necessarily
meant to challenge the underlying principles of those
making these assertions about the lesson(s) of Katrina.
Obviously, I disagree with the view of the Muslim cleric
who believes it wrong to support Israel; I obviously
believe it is right to support Israel. While I may
disagree with the attitude and tone of the Christian
minister's view on homosexuality, I can't disagree with
the basic message; the Torah, itself, declares the act of
homosexual intercourse to be a violation. The tragedy
that occurred in Gush Katif is most complex, but all (or,
at least, most) agree -- regardless of political or
religious perspective -- that the departure from Gaza was
a sad day. It is how individuals are willing to use
tragedy and events such as Katrina to bolster their
viewpoints that incites me. The challenge of
understanding God's ways has bothered the greatest of
individuals, including Moshe Rabbeinu (see T.B. Berachot
7a) since the dawn of time. Yet these modern day
"seers" are able to declare unequivocally God's
message -- and the message is always in support of their
views and never in contradiction with them. If tragedy
occurs to someone who opposes their view, it is a
punishment for having this opposing, sinful view. If
tragedy occurs to someone who shares their view, it is a kapara,
an atonement for, still, the sins of the other. Never
does one of these "seers" ever emerge to say
he/she was wrong, that the tragedy presented a message
that he or she must change.
The very attempt to find a lesson in tragedy and
devastation is, in itself, problematic. To attempt to
give any Divine reason for the pain that Katrina caused
-- including the suffering of children -- is, in fact,
almost blasphemous. Any reason seems to define
sensibility and seems to define God in an ungodly manner.
This is ultimately what bothered Moshe Rabbeinu. The
question of tzaddik v'ra lo, the righteous
individual who experiences intense misfortune, can always
be answered with the simple response that the individual
must not be righteous enough in the eyes of God.
The problem is that we do not see the connection; to us
the pain is inappropriate for the transgression, for
almost any transgression. How can one justify, or even
attempt to justify, the catastrophe of Katrina or the
Tsunami with reasons? All reasons fall pale in the face
of this pain to so many -- so many innocent. This is why
people ask 'Where is God.' The only possible answer of
individuals of faith is that God's ways are beyond us.
Our calling must be to simply respond to the
need (-- and I encourage all to
give towards this important cause of helping
those harmed by Katrina, just as we must help those
dislocated from Gaza whose needs were insufficiently
addressed).
Still, in spite of the mystery of God's involvement in
this world, we are taught that we are to attempt to find
meaning in tragedy and to search for some lesson(s). It
is this directive that actually is used by these
"seers" to defend their pronouncements. Yet,
the Torah literature on the subject of how we are to
respond to tragedy declares that painful events are to
promote introspection and cause us to consider and
re-consider our actions and our thoughts. In considering
a lesson from tragedy, our goal is not to find the reason;
only God can know this mystery. The call is to look at ourselves;
for each individual to look for weakness within.. As
evidenced by some of the punditry after the tragedy of
Katrina, this sadly is not what occurs. Rather than
causing one to re-consider and even change one's views,
events such as Katrina are interpreted, by variant
"seers", in a manner that simply supports their
existing positions. In the wake of tragedy, they use this
devastation to promote their cause, standing on high,
apart from the suffering of other members of humanity, to
declare, without humility and only with pride, that they
have a direct link with the Divine, that they are above
reproach and that God is declaring through this
horror that they are right. This is not the
meaning of the directive to search into ourselves
whenever we confront pain. The message of this directive
is that we are not God, we are not perfect and
that we can and must learn. Sadly these "seers"
do not get this message. (For a further discussion on how
we are to view ourselves in the face of tragedy, see
Rabbi Benjamin Hecht, Viewing Oneself, Introspection
5763-2.)
This is not a call for individuals to constantly change
their opinions. Of course, there are times to be adamant.
Yet we must be careful how we are adamant and how we
defend our uncompromising views. We must always be
careful to place our values and positions within the
greater context of Torah and God. To not be open to
change is to place oneself beyond the possibility of
reproach from Above. To define events simply in support
of one's view -- even as others, within the world of
Torah, attest to other views -- even as other
interpretations are available -- is to impose one's
views upon God. We are to be students of the moral
lessons of the Almighty. We must always be wary of the
possibility that we are attempting to impose our morality
upon others -- effectively attempting to do so by
declaring it to be God's teachings. (It is, in fact, the
Torah concept of tolerance to opposing opinions as
defined in the term eilu v'eilu divrei Elokim chayim,
"these and those are the words of the living
God" [T.B. Eruvin 13b], that ensures a proper view
of ourselves. See, further, Rabbi Benjamin Hecht,
Tolerance, Introspection 5760-3.) There is a call for
humility in the face of tragedy. There is a call to
remind us that God is beyond us and that we are not God.
There is a call to assist humanity; there is a call to be
human.
Rabbi Benjamin Hecht
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this topic
Links
to charity sites for victims of Hurricane Katrina:
Ve'ahavta
United
Jewish Communities
OU/RCA/YU Joint Fund to Help
Communities Affected by Katrina
Chabad
New Orleans
FEMA,
with links to other organizations
Links to charity sites for
former residents of Gaza:
OU fund to help former residents
of Gaza
General:
Ezras Torah
Detailed information on
Hurricane Katrina
Flooded Areas (map)
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