Judaism asserts that nothing is random. Large-scale events in particular are divinely authored and possess both design and purpose. Hashem is not arbitrary and does not abandon His world to chance. Our successes and failure, our triumphs and sufferings, are all supervised by an all-knowing G-d. We may not always fully understand His design, but it exists. Nothing is random.
The covenant described in Parshat Bechukosai is premised on Divine Providence. If we obey divine will, we prosper and live securely in Israel. If we are disloyal and betray Hashem’s, we are expelled from the land of Israel. Having absorbed the lessons of divine punishment, we are expected to improve our behavior. If we remain callous and indifferent, insisting that our suffering is random, Hashem withdraws His supervision and subjects us to a world of chaos. In effect, we select our own arrangement. If we connect the dots and attribute our suffering to our errant behavior, we continue to live under Hashem’s providence. If we impute events to mere chance, our lives become random.
Every major event contains divine messaging. Over the past few months, the search for those messages has intensified. Obviously, a tragedy as enormous as October 7th contains religious implications. Hashem is telling us something.
Not only do we probe tragedies, we also assume divine purpose and authorship for victories and successes. The miraculous protection of our country against the vicious Iranian missile attack was, obviously, a divine intervention. The helicopter crash that took the life of a cruel and murderous thug who served as the president of Iran was also a divine reckoning. We look for the divine calculus behind tragedy and triumph.
Sometimes though, we may go too far. Sometimes we are too self-assured and too self-confident. Playing G-d, we sometime hurl harsh accusations at groups whose wayward behavior we deem responsible for divine punishment.
What are the dangers of playing G-d and how can we search for divine meaning without crossing the boundary between heaven and earth?
Encroachment
Though we are encouraged to probe for divine purpose and discover meaning behind religion, there are areas that are meant to remain off limits, or at least severely restricted to human inquiry. Too much investigation of these issues encroaches on the divine realm. For example, the study of Kabbalah was traditionally limited to small groups and extended only to those above the age of 40. Popularizing the study of cosmological mysteries is an invasion of Hashem’s private domain. Similarly, ambitious messianic prognostication trespasses Hashem’s private realm of historical decision-making. Playing G-d by attributing tragedy to specific causes or sins is an appropriation of the divine calculus and an affront to the divine mystery.
Arrogance
Not only is playing G-d invasive, it is also arrogant. Bilaam, the pagan sorcerer, haughtily boasted that he alone discerned Hashem’s will. In response to his false pride, he was reduced to a cartoonish parody, unable to answer his talking donkey and blind to an angel who impeded his path.
Iyov attempted to comprehend the suffering of the righteous and to justify the ways of G-d to Man. By answering him through a blinding storm, Hashem humbled him, cautioning him not to arrogate even the presumption of knowing the will of Hashem. Playing G-d trespasses on the heavens and is additionally conceited and arrogant.
An unruly world
Playing G-d also misdiagnoses our current historical phase. Earlier periods in history were characterized by obvious and transparent cause and effect. Good deeds were immediately rewarded and sins were punished. Though this system seems harsh, it encouraged more conscientious self-examination. Imagine if every serious sin was followed by a bout of Covid-19: We would probably avoid sins more successfully than we currently do!
With our expulsion from Israel, the world shifted into a different system of divine management, called hester panim, in which cause and effect remained hidden from human analysis. Though we have achieved political sovereignty and returned to Israel, we still labor in a world where cause and effect are veiled. Playing G-d ignores this historical reality while simplistically superimposing the guidelines of an earlier period of Jewish history. Just as the Torah cautions against assuming “randomness” in a world of Divine Providence, we should be careful about outlining direct cause and effect in a world that is so circuitous and convoluted.
Selective Calculus
Often, divine reasoning is articulated only when it suits our needs or our own predetermined ideological positions. Our mapping of divine logic ends up being both one-sided and intellectually dishonest. We celebrate the stories of people who left the Aza communities before the attack and were spared, yet we ignore the stories of outside visitors who ended up in those communities and were murdered. We revel in the stories of individuals who missed a flight that ended up crashing, and ignore the stories of the hundreds of people who did board the flight and were doomed.
This selective calculation of divine purpose manipulates the divine calculus for our own personal agenda, is easily transparent, and often leads to ridicule.
Insensitivity
Finally, we play G-d at the expense of human suffering. Even if divine reason exists, there is a time and place for everything, including silence. The last thing people who suffer tragedy want to hear is who is responsible—or worse, that they themselves, either indirectly or directly, share the blame. This is the worst crime of playing G-d. It is inhuman and hurtful.
A friend once remarked that in the immediate aftermath of Sept 11, his son’s teacher issued a scolding critique of Western culture, pointing to the attack of the Twin Towers as evidence that Hashem was punishing the excesses of Capitalism. I responded that he should remove his son from that school. Any person who doesn’t possess basic decency not to dance on other people’s suffering should not be instructing the Torah of a compassionate G-d.
Before pontificating about Hashem’s reasons, human suffering must be acknowledged, and sympathy must be heartfelt. More often than not, when we speak in the name of G-d, we accuse others of causing our collective tragedies. This is ugly triumphalism at the cost of broken hearts and at the cost of human pain and suffering.
How can we calibrate finding divine purpose and avoiding self-righteousness? Our comments must be phrased with humility. We should preface our ideas with phrases that reflect our uncertainty and exude humility and intellectual modesty. Prefacing our comments with phrases such as “perhaps,” “possibly,” “it may be true,” or “without fully knowing it seems that” convey honesty, unpretentiousness, and sensitivity rather than smugness and self-assuredness.
Furthermore, we should always turn inward. The Gemara in Berachos (5a) claims that in response to suffering, a person should inspect their own behavior rather than scrutinizing the flaws of others. Lessons should first be drawn inward rather than by pointing our fingers outward. First improve one’s own prayer, Torah study, and personal behavior before castigating others for their perceived religious flaws.
Finally, our thoughts should be broad rather than specific. Instead of pointing to specific flaws and highlighting specific sins, we should ask larger questions: What lessons about our society at large does this tragedy underline? What lessons about Jewish history and our return to this land does Hashem want us to take away? Instead of blaming October 7th on specific sins, we should be pondering the larger questions of Jewish identity, our rights to this land, the relationship between different sectors in Israel and the relationship between our people in Israel and Jews overseas.
Stop the finger-pointing. It’s rude. n
Rabbi Moshe Taragin is a rabbi at Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, a hesder yeshiva, with smicha from Yeshiva University and a master’s in English literature from the City University of New York. He is the author of “Dark Clouds Above, Faith Below” (Kodesh Press), which provides religious responses to Oct. 7.
