Several years ago there was a terrible accident involving a school bus in which a large number of children were killed. Shortly after, some silly rabbi said that the reason the children were killed was that they were driving on Shabat (שבת) - the Sabbath. This is the kind of story that the Israeli press loves, for it both confirms their prejudices, and is guaranteed to generate business (i.e. news) for them. Never mind that most rabbis condemn this line of thinking: the idea that we can understand God's motives, that we can ever know why He does anything.
At the time I was sharing an office with a left-wing anti-religious coworker (I very nice guy, don't get me wrong) who, of course, brought up the subject with me. To illustrate the notion that he was more truly religious than the avowedly religious he said, "I can't believe in a God that would kill innocent children because they violated Shabat". Without arguing his premise, I answered, "But you can believe in a God that would kill innocent children because the brakes failed?"
This week's parasha (פרשה) - Tora portion - contains the story of Nadav and Avihu':
וַיִּקְחוּ בְנֵי אַהֲרֹן נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא אִישׁ מַחְתָּתוֹ
וַיִּתְּנוּ בָהֵן אֵשׁ וַיָּשִׂימוּ עָלֶיהָ קְטֹרֶת
וַיַּקְרִיבוּ לִפְנֵי
ה' אֵשׁ זָרָה
אֲשֶׁר לֹא צִוָּה אֹתָם
וַתֵּצֵא אֵשׁ מִלִּפְנֵי ה'
וַתֹּאכַל אוֹתָם
וַיָּמֻתוּ לִפְנֵי ה'
Vayiqhu b'ney aharon nadav va'avihu' ish mahtato
Vayitnu vahem esh vayasimu `aleyha q'toret
Vayaqrivu lifney H' esh zara
Asher lo' siva otam
Vatese' esh milifney H'
Vatokhal otam
Vayamutu lifney H'
And the sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu each took his censer
And gave in them fire and put in them incense
And sacrificed before the Lord strange fire
That He hadn't commanded them
And fire went out from before the Lord
And consumed them
And they died before the Lord
This is considered a difficult story, for no reason is given for their death other than that God had not commanded them to do what they did. Indeed, the traditional reading of this passage is that Nadav and Avihu' had the best of intentions when they did what they did, and God punished them anyway. When it's written in the Bible it's considered a difficult story, yet we see this same story all around us: the best of intentions will not save us from being punished for our mistakes. It is one of the great mysteries of the world, and though we can neither understand it, nor avoid it, we can at least know how to confront it: to learn.
Posted by David Boxenhorn at April 2, 2005 08:57 PMWell, if we consider that God settle rules for the Universe, that are the best posible ones, but still are rules, then it is posible that those rules sometimes lead to terrible results even being optimal.
A God that takes care of everything, all the time, never would allow children to die because of failed brakes. A God that restricts itself by Nature Laws, can allow it, because it is a result of His Laws, that are optimal but impersonal.
Maimonides thinked that God never breaks the Natural Law (with the exception of the miracles of Moses that in Maimonidean cosmovision are supposed to be special, and diffrent from the rest of miracles).