Reply To: R' Avigdor Miller & The Holocaust

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TheMusicMan
Participant

Allow me to intervene:

You are essentially asking the ancient question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?”.

I suggest you read R’ Leib (Lawrence) Keleman’s book Permission to Believe, chapter 6, which discusses precisely this. In short, this is his argument:

In order to examine whether or not bad things happen to good people requires access to two elusive pieces of information.

First of all, who is truly good, and who is truly bad? There are innumerable cases throughout our lives of the supposedly good turning out bad, (think Ponzi schemes, kofrim, the Leiby Kletzky case, Yochanan Kohen Gadol, Zimri), and the bad turning out good (such as Nevuzaradan, Rabbi Akiva). Hitler and Stalin were revered by their people, and yet they were the worst murderers in human history. George Washington And Thomas Jefferson were considered rebellious outlaws in Britain, but were men of vision.

The second piece of information is what is good, and what is bad? Even from a purely materialistic standpoint, it is quite clear that things are not often what they seem. A man who missed his flight may curse his luck…until it crashes into the World Trade Center. Someone who wins the lottery may invest it improperly and land himself in debt. We may pity someone whose job has the fly to remote areas, but they might enjoy the adventure. Someone stuck in an elevator on the 59th floor for 5 hours might relish being able to take their mind off work and meet some new people.

This is all without taking into consideration Olam Haba and the concept of yissurim m’chaprim.

Rephrased, the question is “Why do things that appear to be bad happen to people who appear to be good?”

She’eilas Chacham Chatzi T’shuvah