Our interpretation of what is happening

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asked 4 years ago

Why are incidents that happen in the world considered to define the actions of the light?
For example, if the poor man does something that we perceive as evil, who are we to judge the act and draw conclusions about the doer? And assuming we do judge and draw conclusions, is our conclusion necessarily correct? After all, not all the details are known to us.
This happens even to really brilliant people.
An example from the Wikipedia page for ‘Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’:
“The news of the Lisbon earthquake in 1755 brought Goethe to his first doubts about faith, because in his opinion “God struck both the righteous and the sinners, without distinction, and thus did not prove the qualities of his Father.”
Could it be coming from an emotional place?
I’m having a hard time understanding the arguments about the work of the light. I’d be happy to explain.
thanks

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מיכי Staff answered 4 years ago

In your opinion, there is no point in telling us that God is good, since this concept is also only ours. But the verses tell us that God is good in all His ways and righteous in all His deeds, etc. Good and evil are exactly as we understand them. Of course, there may be a mistake here and there, but our fundamental understandings are correct. Goethe’s claim does not come from an emotional place. Many have asked you this question, and even more have said that there is no answer (meaning that they too recognized the validity of the question).

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סנדומילוף replied 4 years ago

[In that verse it is written righteous and not good. And we would be righteous in our judgment according to his own principles. In other verses it is written that the Lord is good to all. ]

החולק replied 4 years ago

“Righteous” according to his own principles??? And ”Good” – According to your principles??
It is reasonable to assume that the intention was to say “Good Gd is to all and His mercy is upon all His deeds”. But even in the verse that was cited “Righteous Gd is’… and so on; it is certain that everything is according to the principles of Gd.
And to this it is said “This is easy and unworthy” – Oh, be like Him – What is He merciful, you are also merciful, what is He nerdy, you are also nerdy. By your principles?? No! Absolutely not!
You could learn modesty from a cat, theft from an ant, and nakedness from a dove. As the Gemara says.
The whole idea is to learn the dimensions of God, where the true good lies. (And indeed, we will not always understand the calculations of heaven)