Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Sermon for Yom Kippur 2003

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

At this time of the Jewish year, it is normal for us to think about all that is happening in our lives and all that has happened to us and to our loved ones. We recall the memories of personal tragedies, perhaps thinking of our own loved ones who died before their time. Our country recently marked two years since the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
Two years ago, on Yom Kippur, we entered our congregations having witnessed two weeks of images of destruction and its unfathomable aftermath, listening to stories about loved ones lost. Many, many heroes perished amid the twisted steel and searing flames. The very ground of our nation quaked and all of us, wherever we were, shook along with it. So many emotions filled us in those days as we watched the horrors unfolding on television, the awful plumes of smoke filling the skies above New York City and Washington, DC. The skies have cleared, and those emotions, are perhaps somewhat less intense now. Yet we remember them well: ANGER- that someone would do such a thing, HELPLESSNESS- as we watched the events unfold, unable to alter them, ANGUISH- as we thought about the safety of our loved ones and friends who were in New York, SADNESS- for the many lives lost and many more forever changed, RELIEF- that we and our loved ones were safe, EMPATHY- for those for whom this was cruelly untrue, FEAR- that more tragedy was to come, COMPASSION- as we donated blood and gave money to aid those in need, PATRIOTISM- as we rallied together as a nation, PRIDE- as we were reminded of the ideals of our nation and its continued strength, HUMILITY- as we realized that despite our strength we were and are vulnerable.
On Yom Kippur, we are particularly mindful of our vulnerabilities, our strengths and weaknesses, our successes and our failings, our blessings and our curses. I use the words “blessing” and “curse” specifically because they are the words used in the Torah to describe good things and bad things that happen to us. In the Jewish tradition, there are many explanations for why bad things happen to good people. Some of these are repugnant to the modern enlightened mind, but are strongly held beliefs by many fundamentalists who believe in the unfailing truth of the bible. You will hear, if you have not already heard, the opinions of those who hold these beliefs.
We read in the book of Deuteronomy, “When all these things befall you, the blessing and the curse that I have set before you, and you take them to heart amidst the various nations to which Adonai your God has banished you, and you repent to Adonai your God, and you and your children heed God’s command with all of your heart and soul, just as I enjoin upon you this day, then Adonai your God will restore your fortunes and take you back in love.”
The author of these words believed that whatever befalls us in our lives occurs because God blesses us or because God curses us. Everything that happens in our world, according to this belief, happens because God wills it to happen. It is a philosophy that was highly prominent throughout Jewish philosophy for generation after generation and continues to be found among Jews in some measure in the Orthodox community and strongly in the Ultra-Orthodox community. It is also a philosophy found in many Fundamentalist Christian circles.
The belief in this philosophy, that God either blesses us or curses us, coupled with the belief that God is always just leads to a philosophy that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. Blessings that are in our lives are rewards for our righteousness. Curses are punishments for our misdeeds. Therefore, if curses are present in our lives, according to this philosophy, it is because we have sinned.
Someone with this philosophy is forced to seek out a sin or sins that might have led God to punish those who have been afflicted. An appalling example of this are the statements made by the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who argued in essence that a lack of morality among Americans resulted in the tragedies that befell our nation two years ago. We all, I am sure, feel revulsion at this sentiment and could not disagree more strongly. We do not feel compelled to explain why God punished them, their families, and our nation, and most of us, if not all of us, would find despicable the notion that any of them, ANY of them, deserved this fate. For fundamentalists, who believe that God causes all things to happen, there must be reason why God made this happen or allowed it to happen. They ask, “What did these people do, what did we do, to deserve this?” No answer to that question is appropriate in my mind and I am sure that the vast majority of you, if not all of you, would agree with me.
Interestingly, the belief that blessings and curses are bestowed upon us by God for what we, ourselves, have done in our lives is already an advancement over the previous philosophy, that which is found in the book of Numbers, chapter 14. There we find, “The LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness; forgiving iniquity and transgression; yet not remitting all punishment, but VISITING THE SINS OF THE FATHERS UPON CHILDREN, unto the third and fourth generations!!!” According to this philosophy, righteous people ARE PUNISHED, not for their actions, but for the misdeeds of their ancestors! This is a reasonable explanation for why bad things happen to good people, if we are willing to believe in a God who would do such a thing. This kind of god would be unjust and vindictive, taking vengeance upon innocents while failing to punish the guilty. This philosophy does explain why bad things happen to good people, but does so in a way that is unacceptable in its concept of God. A good and just God would not do this.
By the time that the book of Deuteronomy was written, it seems that this philosophy and a belief in this kind of god had been altered. Now, blessings and curses were considered to be rewards and punishments for one’s own actions. According to this philosophy, when bad things happen to us it is because we ourselves deserve them. The righteous are not punished.
The problem is that where the earlier philosophy explained why bad things happen to good people, by putting the blame for punishment on ancestors, the philosophy as found in Deuteronomy does not. Deuteronomy argues that bad things DO NOT HAPPEN to good people. If something bad happens to someone it is because they are wicked. The righteous are never punished, because that would be unjust and God is always just. Thus, we come to the philosophy of the so called “friends” of Job, who believed that the curses befalling him were happening because God was punishing him for his sins. Job, in their minds, could not be righteous. God would not punish a righteous man.
As noted by Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, the story of Job assumes three things, that God is omnipotent, all powerful, that God is omniscient, all seeing, and that God is omni-benevolent, always good. Applying these to the story of Job, we find a problematic contradiction. The one thing that we are told is true beyond any doubt is that Job is righteous. If God is all seeing, then God knows that Job is righteous. If we were to assume that God is not all seeing, then the entire proposition fails because God would not know who is righteous and who is not and therefore rewarding or punishing ANYONE at all would be unjust. Let us for the moment assume, as the author of Job does, that God is indeed all seeing and that Job is righteous.
The contradiction comes in that bad things, curses, are happening to Job, to someone who is righteous and whom God knows is righteous. While Job’s friends question this, the author does not. The reader is left with no doubt that Job is righteous.
Now to the problem posed by the contradiction. A just God, who is all powerful, and all seeing cannot punish the just, even if intending to reward later. Imagine the pain that Job felt as he watched his family die, as he suffered the tortures of physical pain and emotional suffering. Does his return to success at an even greater level outweigh this? Does it even matter? And what of the members of Job’s family? They were not rewarded later. They were killed or allowed to die. The problem, as I see it, is that even if the god of the book of Job intended to reward Job later from the outset, such a plan is not benevolent.
So, we return to our question, why? Why do bad things happen to good people? Certainly, none of the explanations we have looked at thus far provide any comfort to us as we reflect upon the events of September 11 in which so many innocents perished in such horrible ways or any number of tragedies that have affected members of our own community. A just god would not punish the innocent for the sins of others, nor would such a god allow the righteous to be punished if it were possible to prevent it, nor may we assume that anyone who suffers deserves to suffer.
There is a fourth explanation for why bad things happen to good people that is found in a source with which all of us are familiar. The 23rd Psalm holds a much different explanation for why bad things happen to good people at its heart and in fact, is one appropriate to the views of modern Reform Judaism and more broadly to the views of an enlightened and compassionate world.
If we translate the psalm based upon the Hebrew tradition and not upon the Greek tradition that forms the basis of the King James version of the bible, it is even more apt.
The LORD is my shepherd, I will not be missing (from the flock),
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me to tranquil waters;
He renews my soul;
He guides me in righteous paths for his name’s sake.

And When I walk through the darkest valley,
I will not fear evil, for You are with me,
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table for me before my enemies,
You anoint my head with oil;
I have plenty to drink.

Only goodness and unquestioning love
shall pursue me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the House of the LORD
for the length of my days.

You see, the 23rd Psalm is not about death specifically, but about facing our troubles in this life, including times when we or our loved ones will face death, but also times of illness, familial troubles, economic crisis, national tragedy; any time when we find ourselves in a dark valley, where it may be difficult to see beyond the boundaries of our circumstance. It is then, when we can not see the light at the end of the tunnel, the opening at the end of the valley, that we remember that the LORD is our shepherd and that God will not let us get lost, God will lead us to green pastures, to tranquil waters. Even when we find ourselves in such an awful place in life, we shall fear no evil because God is with us.
Why does this represent a fourth view of why bad things happen to good people? The answer is that God does not lead us into the valley. God does not bring the curse upon us. God does not make the bad thing happen to us. Nor, NOR, is God able to simply lift us out of the valley. In the 23rd Psalm, God is not omnipotent, not all powerful. God does not simply lift us out of the valley. God works much harder, guiding us every step of the way, leading us to nourishment, helping us to face the difficulties that we will encounter along the way, like a loved one holding your hand during a time of illness and pain. This God does not curse us, nor does this God have the power to remove our curses.
At this time of year, we call God, “Avinu,” “Our Father.” We ask God to treat us like a loving parent, with compassion and mercy. The God of the 23rd Psalm takes care of us like a parent with a sick child, loving, embracing us, aching out of helplessness, yearning to bring us to a better place, to bring us through the tough times. And like a parent, all the while calming our fears. God can not remove us from our darkest valleys, but like a parent, God can help us feel better as we walk through them.
The God of the 23rd Psalm is not everything that we would like God to be. We would like a God who would never let anyone suffer, who would never let parents see their children die, never allow children to grow up in the absence of a father or mother, a God who could smooth over all of our differences, who would never let a bad thing happen to a good person, and who could abolish all illness, famine, ignorance and war from the face of the earth.
But we know that these things do happen. We know that bad things happen to good people. All of us know all too well. How harshly were we reminded so recently. The thoughts, the images, are seared into our memories. I know that many of us, if not all of us, here today have asked “why.” No, more than that, we cried out, “WHY?!!!” The author of the 23rd Psalm would tell us that all of us will enter dark valleys in our lives, not because of anything that we did or anything that our ancestors did, nor because God placed us in their midst, and that when we are in those valleys and we become afraid, we should remember that we are not alone, that God is with us.
But not only God is with us in our valleys, often we are in them together. Let us gain strength from each other. Let us reach out and help those in need in any way that we can, whether it is by giving blood, by donating money, by giving a hug, by calling those touched by tragedy and letting them know that we are thinking about them.
Today, during this time of our great humility before God, we bravely face the future together as we offer our most fervent prayer that peace will come to us, to our people Israel, and to all the peoples of the world, that the words of the prophet Micah will soon come true, “Let nation not lift up sword against nation. Let them study war no more.” And we ask, with all of our hearts, “Oseh Shalom Bim’ro’mav. Hu ya’aseh Shalom. Aleinu V’al Kol Yisrael. V’al Kol Ha’amim. V’imru Amein,” that God who makes peace in the heavens, make peace descend upon us, upon Israel, and upon all the peoples of the earth. And let us all say, “Amen.”

Kein Yehi Ratson. May it be God’s will. Good Yom Tov.