Q&A: The Morality of Divine Punishment
The Morality of Divine Punishment
Question
With God's help,
I wanted to ask: the idea that the Holy One, blessed be He, created human beings with free choice and an evil inclination, so that if they violate His commandments He will punish them—doesn't that raise some kind of moral problem? After all, from the outset He knows that in all likelihood such-and-such a number of people will end up in the basement of Gehenna.
So let's say, fine, He gives greater reward to those who excel more (assuming they can receive it only through free choice, by observing Torah and commandments and doing good deeds), but why punish the wicked in Gehenna after they die? What's the point of that?
By the way, I thought that if, for example, that wicked person were someone like Hitler, then most of us would agree that he should be punished. But if so, then what difference is there between morality and commandments, say, flipping a switch on the Sabbath? The normative force of both is equal, isn't it?
And it still seems strange—what's the point of punishing a person who ate lettuce with a worm in it, or didn't listen to the commandments of God, blessed be He?
Answer
I didn't understand the discussion about morality and commandments. If the Holy One, blessed be He, created us, then He has the right to make demands of us—whether moral demands or commandments. Especially if you accept that transgressions are harmful in some sense to the world or to the person.
Nowhere is it stated that God created man with free choice. In general, this whole concept of free choice was invented by people who are offended by the thought that they are subject to the laws of nature.
God is the one who determines what to do, not morality. One has to overcome moral feelings.