Does God punish us? – straight ahead

Still Small Voice is a collection of 18 interviews with rabbis that addressed 18 questions about God, published during the month of Elul, a time of Jewish meditation and accountability. Click here to read the introduction to the series, and here to browse the collection.

It is difficult to witness God’s anger and not feel alienated.

God’s punishments in the Torah seem disproportionate. All humanity drowns shortly after our creation; He orders the killing of thousands to build the golden calf; He opens the ground to swallow up the rebels who question Musa’s authority in the desert. Can’t I correct scorched earth – let alone coronavirus? With a loving God.

But when I spoke to Rabbi David Wolpe, who heads the largest Conservative synagogue west of the Mississippi, he completely rejected the notion that God is being punished.

Said Wolby, 61, a nationally known author and speaker I met in 2007 at a conference called “Why Be a Jew?” , The image of a punitive deity from a biblical time is no longer valid. He suggested that God should start as a stricter parent so that the emerging people could assimilate the rules; Once we learned it, we were free to be moral – or not.

Wolpe said the god of the day is not a punisher – and he has not orchestrated the pandemic. Today we have a different god who is asking us for more.

Wolbe’s first of eight books, published in 1990, was Healer of Broken Hearts: A Jewish View of God. He told me that he wrote it “entirely because I fell out of a Jewish religious tradition where no one had ever spoken of God.”

“Partly because when we talk about God in English, it sounds Christian – we can’t help it; Wolpe explained in our interview,“ English is a Christian language. ”So when you say“ faith, ”“ grace, ”or“ love, ”they all sound Christian. .

He added, “I came from a Jewish tradition that does not speak about God, and it was driving me crazy because this is what we are supposed to build on.” “And it’s still true. For most of the non-Orthodox Jews, this is still not the conversation that most of them would like to have.”

That’s why I embarked on this project: In two decades of writing about Jewish practice and identity, I’ve hardly ever touched on the divine. Whenever I talked about my book, “My Jewish Year: 18 Vacations, a Jew Wonders One,” people were asking why he focused more on ritual than God.

When I called on Rabbi Wolpe to send a text to clarify his opinion on whether and how God is punishing, he chose a passage from the Book of Kings (19: 11-13). It’s one that I’ve always preferred because of her hair. And because her idea seems real – that God will not appear in storms, but rather in stillness.

And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and powerful wind tore apart the mountains and broke rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake. As for the Lord, there was no fire in the earthquake and after the earthquake. But the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire a quiet voice.

The clip became my head and the title of this project inspired a little sound. In it, I explore 18 questions about God with 18 Jewish thinkers.

My talk with Wolpe follows, edited for clarity and length. You can read other interviews, about other questions, [here]((https://forward.com/tag/still-small-voice/), I hope you send (patient’s) feedback to [email protected].

“This is a very small mechanical god.”

Image copyright Angelie Zaslavsky

Rabbi David Wolpe

Rabbi David Wolpe: The reason I go to this text is that what the reader expects is that God will be in earthquake and fire, and God will be in the huge crowd, crushing the demonstrations, because this is how God appeared throughout most of the Torah. But the Hebrew – “kol d’mama daka” – means the gentle sound of silence. I think the text prepares us for how God works in our lives now: these soft voices in the conscience, in the whispers, not in the grand gestures.

Abigail Pogrebin: But how do we look at those great gestures and not say that God is a god of punishment?

DW: You can follow the entire Jewish tradition from beginning to end and find God’s punishments. I see it as a prior understanding of how God works.

The same way you start out with the kids, you have to do the punishment part so that people’s moral intuition is trained. But once they’re trained, you have to step back and say, “Well, now you know what you’re supposed to do. You go do it.”

Hence, the essence of your relationship with God is in the relationship, not in the good things God bestows from heaven. Even if it’s really important stuff.

AP: Like what?

DW: Like someone who says, “Oh my God, heal my sick mother” and the mother dies. Then they say, “I don’t believe in God anymore.” What kind of God did they believe in? They believed in God who if you say the right words the right way does what you want. This is a very small and mechanical god.

AP: So where is the Great God? If you are saying that God does not punish us – and does not make someone live or die depending on behavior – then where is God’s power?

DW: The power of God is in human power. And to some extent, I suppose, in the natural process of action for healing. The way God established the world and how you can still communicate with God and draw strength from Him.

I remember when I got treatment for cancer in the hospital and all these rabbis were telling me they were telling me May Spirash, and I was really grateful; You have given me strength. But I couldn’t believe for a moment that God would look down and say, “You know, nobody prays for that other patient in Bed 4, so he might succumb to cancer, but Wolpe has a group of people praying for him, so I’m going to save Wolpe.” I’d describe it crudely, but that’s the theology behind it.

‘I strongly believe in randomness’

AP: So you don’t believe God determines who will reward or punish.

DW: I strongly believe in randomness. The reason for this is, first of all, from observation. In the words of the rabbis, the good man suffers and the wicked flourishes. We know that your actions do not control your destiny in this world, and the Talmud says this on several different iterations.

At a certain point I realized that randomness is the only way you can build a world if you want to do good.

AP: Why does goodness require randomness?

DW: Because when people ask, “Why don’t good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people?” —- What they wish for is a world built like a Skinner Box, where if you do good, you will be rewarded, if you do bad, you will be punished. In a world like this, everyone would do good, but it would not be true good.

If I were to fall ill every time I stole, I would never steal. Not because I thought the theft was wrong, but because I thought it was dangerous for me. But the definition of good action is to do something without knowing the consequences it will have on you.

AP: We should do good just because we believe in good.

DW: Right – not because I know that if I give money to tzedakah, God will prevent me from contracting Covid. Much of the debt is based on an almost child-like level of debt – “If you do this, you get a cookie. If you do, you have to go to bed early.” But at some point, you hope the kids get to the point where they will, for a more fundamental reason.

When people say, “God did this because I did it,” what they are essentially doing is destroying the potential for true human good. So if you ask me, “Will God punish?” My answer is no. God does not work this way.

I think it makes more sense to think that God creates a world in which you can turn to God for guidance, encouragement, and strength.

So I see God’s power in the natural processes of the world and through humans as well. But I don’t think God is progressing in a supernatural way to eradicate tumors or suppress viruses.

‘When a crisis comes, we are already tested’

AP: So what is happening with God now? Should we talk about God in this epidemic? Is there any kind of God’s presence here?

DW: Yes. Meaning, we are called to be witnesses and healers. This call is from God.

AP: How should we answer it?

DW: The way we react to this crisis determines our faith and our desire to fulfill God’s mission in this world. We know day in and day out how we should live – at least in broad strokes. But when a crisis does come, we are already tested.

This is when you discover to what extent your relationship with God has actually shaped the way you behave in this world, whether you truly believe that other creatures – other humans – are in God’s image as well, and whether you truly bear responsibility for them.

AP: Why do you think the rabbis do not talk easily about God?

DW: Because the Jewish tent is wider without it. I’ve never said it this way before, but I think that’s why. Because without God, you can include people who love Israel but do not believe in God; You can include people who love Jews but do not believe in God; And people who have not entered the synagogue in years and have never thought of God but still feel like Jews.

AP: Can Judaism without God sustain itself?

DW: No, because we’re a religious family. This is why we exist. We have this message and this relationship with God throughout history. This is why we are here.

“If you don’t like the word of God, get it.”

AP: What would you say to the person who says, “I’m kind of literal, and when I see things that are breathtaking or feeling emotional, I don’t know why I put the word ‘God’ in it – that sounds like an arbitrary classification.”

DW: Here is what I would like to say: The world is not divided between believers and non-believers, but between materialists and non-materialists. Either you think that the world is nothing but things, everything is chemicals – we are only made of synapses – or you think spiritual truths are real – there is something about the soul that makes your heart sing, there is a mystery at the heart of the universe.

If you believe these spiritual truths are real, then you believe in some source of those truths, whatever you want to call it. If you don’t like God’s word, I understand that, but you are on the religious side if you think there is more to this world than things.

AP: And the idea that rationalists want some evidence of God?

DW: Ultimately, the evidence is there. If you feel the presence of God, this is your guide. It came in proverbs: “A fool says in his heart there is no god.” He does not say that in his head. You say it in his heart, because this is where you feel God or not. “

AP: You either have it or you don’t.

DW: No, you can develop it – like your appreciation for music or art. I am not an intrinsically religious person. I planted this meaning in myself. I really believe in it.

There are some people who have told me that they have never doubted God. They were born with this talent, just as some people are born with perfect pitch. this is not me. I have to work on it.

Abigail Pogrebin, freelance journalist, author, and public speaker, forward contributing writer. Follow her on Twitter. The tweet included David Wallb is the chief rabbi of the Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. He can be found on Twitter at RabbiWolpe.

Image copyright Angelie Zaslavsky

Still a Small Voice: 18 Questions About God is a special project of the month of Elul, a traditional period of reflection and accountability. Click here to read the next interview in the series, and here to browse the collection.

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