Probably more than any other people, the Jews have repeatedly had to face the question of undeserved suffering. Protest to God is enshrined in their scriptures, such as Psalm 22:1-2 “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping Me. O my God, I cry by day, but thou dost not answer; and by night, but find no rest.”
In a modem translation of the Psalms Jim Cotter continues this psalm, drawing out the connections with the Holocaust:
The tanks of the mighty encircle me,
Barbed wire and machine guns surround me.
They have marked my arm with a number,
And never call me by name.
They have stripped me of clothes and of shoes,
And showered me with gas in the chamber of death.
Why? Why? Why?
Why, silent God, why?
The questions raised by the genocidal destruction of Jews in the Second World War loom large in the Jewish community. The numerous memorials to the death camps throughout the world, and especially in Israel, bear witness to a 'Holocaust consciousness or psyche'. During the last fifty years numerous attempts have been made to glimpse some light of understanding in the darkness of this evil destruction.
There are two more approaches to the question of undeserved suffering in face of the Holocaust:
- The first is to offer a response - often, but not always, a protest.
- The second is to attempt an explanation of the suffering, suggesting a purpose behind it.
RESPONSES TO THE HOLOCAUST
Some responses to the Holocaust have been based on themes found in the Jewish Scripture, such as Psalm 55:-
God, hear my prayer,
do not hide from
my petition,
give me a hearing, answer me,
I cannot rest for complaining.
1. Protesting to God
Protest was Job's response. The sufferer questions God and expresses before God his/her own anxieties, experience of injustice and suffering, feelings of outrage and despair or anger. Many psalms are classic examples of prayers of protest, articulating the human experience and challenging God to do something about it
These psalms refuse easy answers. What they do is help us acknowledge the real questions. It is precisely be cause they confront the questions all of us ask from time to time, that the psalms have such universal appeal.
Because the prayer of protest encourages us to face up to suffering, to come to terms with it by articulating our feelings, it is a useful and cathartic response to the issue of suffering.
Holocaust victim Elie Wiesel responds in a prayer of protest. According to Wiesel we pray to God because he has so much to answer for: we have to protest against him as well as to him. The only alternative is despair, or silence.
In ‘A Jew Today’ Wiesel describes the one remaining member of a Jewish family saying to God:
“Master of the Universe, I know what you want - I understand what You are doing. You want despair to overwhelm me. You want me to cease believing in You, to cease praying to You, to cease invoking Your name to glorify and sanctify it. Well I tell you: No, no- a thousand times no! You shall not succeed! In spite of me and in spite of You, I shall shout the Kaddish, which is a song of faith, for You and against You. This song You shall not still, God of Israel.”
2. Wrestling with God
The second response is to wrestle with God in order to find meaning in the suffering or to justify the innocent. The archetypal story in the Bible is that of Abraham wrestling with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. The full story is found in Genesis 18.
“ When the men turned and went towards Sodom, Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Abraham drew near him and said, 'Wilt thou really sweep away good and bad together?. Suppose there are fifty good men in the city; wilt thou really sweep it away, and not pardon the place because of the fifty good men? Far be it from thee to do this - to kill good and bad together; for then the good would suffer with the bad. Far be it from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?' The Lord said, 'If I find in the city of Sodom fifty good men, I will pardon the whole place for their sake.' Abraham replied, 'May I presume to speak to the Lord, dust and ashes that I am: suppose there are five short of the fifty good men? Wilt thou destroy the whole city for a mere five men?' He said, 'If I find forty-five there I will not destroy it.' Abraham spoke again, 'Suppose forty can be found there?' and he said, 'For the sake of the forty I will not do it.' Then Abraham said, 'Please, do not be angry, O Lord, if I speak again: suppose thirty can be found there?' He answered, 'If I find thirty there I will not do it.' Abraham continued, 'May I presume to speak to the Lord: suppose twenty can be found there?' He replied, 'For the sake of the twenty I will not destroy it.' Abraham said, 'I pray thee not to be angry, O Lord, if I speak just once more: suppose ten can be found there?' He said, 'For the sake of the ten I will not destroy it.' When the Lord had finished talking with Abraham, he left him, and Abraham returned home.”
These two responses arise out of Jewish Scriptures. Other more practical responses have been:
- To remember - to bear witness and keep the memory of the dead and the atrocities alive. This memorial is enshrined in such museums as Yad Vashem: it acts as a warning - a witness to the horrors which human beings can inflict on one another.
- To seek justice - this is exemplified by Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter. The blood of those slaughtered demands justice: the perpetrators of evil must be brought to trial.
- To bear witness - people like Primo Levi the novelist aim to bear witness in their writings, and by so doing to learn lessons from the past.
EXPLANATIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST
The second approach to the Holocaust is to attempt to justify the goodness of God in the light of so much suffering. These attempts have been very varied.
One of them has been to talk of a 'God in hiding'. The idea that at times God 'hides his face' when his people suffer is expressed in the Jewish Scriptures:
'Why do you hide your face,and forget we are wretched and exploited?' (Psalm 44:24)
E. Berkovits, one of the leading Jewish theologians who offers this idea, writes that God was indeed present in the Holocaust with his chosen people but he was in hiding.
Other Jewish thinkers have suggested that God caused the Holocaust. Maza puts forward the idea that God used the Holocaust as an instrument to return his people to the study of the Torah. This again has echoes in the Bible, where we read of God punishing his people in order to bring them back to himself.
It is wholly understandable that some Jews have lost their faith in God through the orgy of hate they suffered in the Holocaust. However, some have continued to believe, despite all these atrocities - as these words scratched on a cellar wall in Cologne testify;
I believe in the sun
even when
it is not shining,
I believe in love
even when not feeling it.
I believe in God
even when he is silent.
THINKING IT THROUGH
- How true do you think Wiesel's words are: that we pray to God because he has so much to answer for; that we have to protest against him as well as to him; that the only alternative is despair, or silence?
- How does this response differ from that of the person who gives up belief in God because of all the undeserved suffering in the world? Which response do you think is the most credible?