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From: ken%pyr@gatech.edu (Ken Hall)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Jewish Wisdom
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Date: 29 Sep 89 07:00:48 GMT
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It is good for Christians to read and understand Jewish thought.

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Message-ID: <1078@cbnewsk.ATT.COM>
Date: 26 Sep 89 15:09:07 GMT
Reply-To: alu@cbnewsk.ATT.COM (Alan Lustiger)
Organization: AT&T Engineering Research Center
Lines: 159

SHABBAT SHALOM
Nitzavim-Vayelech

by Shlomo Riskin

    Efrat, Israel -- In a world such as ours, so often expressive
of  evil  and  suffering,  we often hear the cry, "where is G-d?"
And the religious answer is :  "G-d is not  dead;  he  is  merely
hidden."   But how do we narrow the gulf between a hidden G-d and
a revealed G-d?  Why does G-d choose to  hide  himself?   In  the
second  part of this week's Torah reading, Nitzavim-Vayelech, G-d
prophecies to Moses what will  happen  if,  and  when,  the  Jews
worship  other  gods, a description which penetrates the heart of
the nation since it's the Torah's final warning prior to the last
blessing  that  Moses  will shortly bestow upon the Israelites in
the Torah's final verses.
    "Then my anger will burn against  them  and  I  will  forsake
them.   I will hide my face from them and they shall be devoured,
and many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they  will
say  on  that day, 'Are not these evils come upon us, because our
G-d is not among us?'  And I will surely hide my face on that day
for all the evils which they shall have perpetuated, in that they
have turned to other gods."  (Deut.  31:17-18)
    Although during the 40 years since the Exodus from Egypt, G-d
had  been  revealing  Himself  in  ways  never  done  before,  He
prophesied, nevertheless, that in the future he will be  "hidden"
as a punishment for worshiping other gods.
    One of the thorniest theological issues in  Judaism  (or  any
religion)  is  how  to tackle the question of a hidden G-d or, in
more familiar terms, why do evil people go unpunished  while  the
good  continue to suffer?  In his work Faith After The Holocaust,
Professor  Eliezer  Berkowitz  explores  this   idea   of   G-d's
"hiddeness" as it appears in at least three different contexts in
the Torah.  I'd like to review these in  order  to  focus  on why
G-d's punishment of evildoers does not follow our own ideas about
speedy justice.
    Our text cited above sees a "hidden G-d"  as  punishment  for
abandoning  His  ways.  If we sin, G-d "hides" himself.  The more
we sin, the more hidden shall the face of G-d become:   hiddeness
as  punishment.  But there is a second aspect to "hiddeness" that
has nothing to do with punishment; the hidden face of G-d is also
an   expression   of   Divine   indifference.   This  theological
interpretation seems most appropriate to the Holocaust, a  period
when  we  can certainly suggest that G-d was "hidden" or, in more
prosaic terms, He was asleep.  In sleep, one  is  indifferent  to
surroundings,  one  seems  to  forget  that the world exists and,
apparently sleep removes one's self from responsibility.  "But it
is for Your sake that we are killed all day long; we are reckoned
as sheep for slaughter.   Awake,  why  do  you  sleep,  O  Lord?"
(Psalms  44:23-24)   The  words  of  the Psalmist could have been
spoken by the victims on the Holocaust.   Similarly,  in  another
verse, the author cries out, "Until when, O Lord, will You forget
me forever?  Until when will you hide Your face from me?" (Psalms
13:2)
    A third understanding of hiddeness can be found in Isaiah and
is,  in  some  ways,  more  disturbing  and  astonishing that the
specter of an indifferent G-d.   "...You  are  a  G-d  you  hides
Yourself,  You  are  a  G-d who saves them,", (Isaiah 45:15), and
earlier, the prophet declares, "And I will wait for G-d who hides
His  face...and  I  will hope for Him. Behold, I and the children
G-d has given me are for signs and for portents  in  Israel  from
the G-d of hosts who dwells in Mt. Zion."  (Isaiah 8:17)  This is
a  radical  -  even  revolutionary  -  idea.   For  Isaiah,   the
redemption  and  all  that  which  we  hope for, must come from a
hidden G-d.
    Our various texts evoke different ways of apprehending  G-d's
mystery.   The  first, though harshest, is easiest to comprehend.
When we do not  live  by  G-d's  law,  we  are  punished.   Next,
although  the  idea  of  G-d  far  removed from our mundane world
hardly comforts, we accept the theological possibility of G-d off
in  other realms, whether "asleep" or "indifferent" because, from
the human perspective, this is what a hidden G-d is all about, at
least in its literal meaning.
    By far, the most difficult concept to understand is  Isaiah's
hidden  G-d  who leads us toward hope and salvation, an idea that
challenges us to fathom how we can achieve  absolute  light  from
absolute darkness.
    Fundamental to Jewish theology is the idea  of  an  imperfect
world  awaiting  perfection.   When  will  this perfection occur?
When G-d is perfectly manifested in the world, when  He  and  His
name  become  one,  then our planet will be under the kingship of
G-d.  What is the job of the Jewish people?  To  lead  the  world
towards  achieving  perfection.   If  we don't do it, we shall be
punished.  And our punishment?  G-d's hidden face  because,  just
as there is no greater reward than achieving perfection, there is
no greater punishment that the continued hiddeness of G-d.
    But, ironically, this very  hiddeness  conceals  a  blessing.
G-d  is  depicted  in  the  Torah  as  "...mighty,  merciful, and
gracious,  longsuffering,  and  abundant  in  love  and  truth...
forgiving  iniquity and sin and transgression..." (Exodus 34:6-7)
Therefore, what seems to be G-d's indifference  to  evil  is,  in
actuality,   G-d  waiting  for  repentance  to  emerge  from  the
evildoer's own volition.
    Understanding that G-d does not have to swoop down every time
a  Wells  Fargo  truck is robbed means that I grasp evil not-yet-
punished does not  necessarily  restrict  G-d's  greatness.   Our
salvation  will  only come, however, when the world repents.  And
G-d has ultimate faith in human nature,  in  the  fact  that  the
evildoer  will  eventually  change  direction  and  return to the
source of ethics and morality.  G-d's patience with the sinner is
an  expression  of His confidence in the human ability to perfect
itself.
    An amazing text in Tractate Yoma 69b explains that the Men of
the  Great  Assembly  were  called  this  because  they  returned
greatness to the crown of G-d.  When Israel was crushed under the
weight  of  the  Babylonian and Roman powers, Jeremiah and Daniel
expressed their despair by evoking G-d in terms far humbler  than
Moses'  prayer,  "G-d  is great and mighty and awesome..." (Deut.
10:17)  They each deleted another one of the  Divine  attributes.
But  the  Men of the Great Assembly illuminated G-d's way to man,
restoring the description of G-d as great, mighty, and awesome to
its pristine praise.
    "This is G-d's greatness, that He was able  to  overcome  His
instincts,  that  he was able to be longsuffering to the wicked."
Although the nations who destroyed the Holy  Temple  should  have
been immediately destroyed, G-d restrained Himself, demonstrating
the basic attributes of His essence:  "...merciful  and  gracious
and longsuffering..."
    One might think that what makes G-d great is the swiftness of
His  sword;  the Great Assembly taught that the opposite is true.
G-d is great precisely because He is  "...merciful  and  gracious
and  longsuffering,  and  abundant  in love and truth..." (Exodus
34:6-7).
    In effect, when we ask why good people suffer and  evil  ones
prosper,  we  are really asking:  Why is G-d a hidden G-d?  Let's
look at the alternative.  If everything about G-d  were  revealed
and  manifested,  this  would  mean  we'd already have achieved a
perfect world, which is far from true.  G-d wants  us  to  repent
and he appears hidden because He wants us to find Him.. And He is
confident that we eventually will.
    A story is told about the Shoplyer  Grandfather,  a  chassdic
master  who  once  came  upon children playing hide and seek and,
when he saw one of the children crying,  he  stopped  and  asked,
"Why  the  tears?"   The child answered that he'd been hiding for
the longest time, but no one had  come  to  look  for  him.   The
elderly  Jew  looked  up  to heaven and cried out, "Master of the
universe, I know You're hiding because You want us to  find  You,
but  what  happens  if  You  continue  to  remain hidden and Your
children stop looking?  Before it's too late,  reveal  yourself."
If  we  could  address G-d as directly and simply as the Shoplyer
Grandfather, what a huge step we'd be taking toward revealing the
"hidden face" of G-d.


Shabbat Shalom
 
Copyright Ohr Torah 1989.
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==============
K'tiva v'chatima tova. 

-- 
               		Alan Lustiger
    |_ | |             	AT&T Engineering Research Center
     /   |( 		Princeton, NJ
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