Q&A: The Judge of All the Earth
The Judge of All the Earth
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Even though the Rabbi wrote that he does not engage in studying the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh),
still, there is a difficulty here.
Our forefather Abraham argues toward Heaven: “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?”
That is, it cannot be.
So if that is the case—if it cannot be—then necessarily there are not fifty righteous people there.
Can one really say about him that he is suspecting the innocent?
To make an assumption and then come with a claim—on the contrary, the Holy One, blessed be He, should have argued against him that he was suspecting Him.
Some will say that the righteous also were not okay, because they did not stop the wicked, etc.
And of course that does not answer it, because then Abraham’s claim is not correct.
Seemingly, the conclusion from here is that if Abraham had not made this claim, it would not have been accepted,
and in truth the righteous would have died together with the wicked.
And you say there are no conclusions to be drawn from the Hebrew Bible.
You are usually right, but here I really do feel there is a conclusion,
one that runs opposite to the internal logic.
But the world really does seem to be run that way, with the righteous treated like the wicked.
“Run that way” in the sense that if you read the Hebrew Bible, it seems the punishments are collective.
In any case, if there is some answer to this matter,
one thing will still remain: the verse “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?”
is not proof that God behaves morally.
Answer
When I said that I do not deal with the Hebrew Bible, I also meant the real difficulties in it, and perhaps mainly those.
Explain to me what conclusion you draw from studying this passage. You yourself point to contradictions, and I can explain it in a thousand ways among which you will not be able to decide. In the end you will adopt what seems reasonable to you, and once again you did not derive the conclusion from the study and from the passage. When Abraham protested, “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice,” did he take that from the Hebrew Bible? For him it was a matter of reasoning. So your Hebrew Bible here is the reasoning of our forefather Abraham.
As for collective punishment, there are explicit verses in the Hebrew Bible that say the opposite (“children for the sins of their fathers,” “each man shall die for his own sin,” etc.). Again, you will not be able to draw a conclusion.
Discussion on Answer
You assume that the claim that God is moral is inferred from Scripture. But that too is taken from Scripture, and that too is debatable. There are things that were actually done that look one way, and there are others that look the other way. That is exactly why there is no point in studying the Hebrew Bible. And the contradictions between the declarations and the actions are contradictions as well.
Your question about murder is not connected to the Hebrew Bible or to our discussion. You are simply asking why murder is immoral. And the answer is: that is just how it is. Moral values have no prior reason before them. Human life has value, and that is that—exactly as you wrote. You can see it as someone robbing the murdered person of his life. The problem is not suffering. And it is true that if we knew why the Holy One, blessed be He, took someone’s life, we could perceive it in a broader way. But we have no such information, and therefore there is no point in dealing with all this.
True, my words are not entirely connected.
Regarding the previous matter, the remark was about the issue the Rabbi discussed at great length—the problem of evil—and explained that God only does not intervene to prevent, etc. etc.,
and did not accept the position that says whatever God does is good. I am only noting
that even according to the approach that God does not intervene in what happens in creation at all, it is still very possible that for a person who dies, that is very good for him.
And another remark on the issue itself: when someone young dies, we all tend to feel a great deal of pity and sorrow.
Is that correct?
I am not talking about the family’s grief.
One more small remark: I think it is very fitting to thank the Rabbi a lot.
On the other hand, I have a bit of a feeling of equanimity on the Rabbi’s part—that it does not really make much difference to the Rabbi whether people thank him or not 🤔😉
Of course one is sad. A life has been lost.
I am not up to that kind of character refinement. I also do not think equanimity is the right thing here.
Thank you very much for the answer.
I never stop being amazed by the Rabbi, who does not rest and answers questions day and night, all for free.
Thanks beyond measure.
On the substance of the matter: indeed, in the Hebrew Bible it says they shall not die, and on the other hand it says “visiting the iniquity of the fathers,” etc.
But I am talking about things that were actually done—collective punishment of nations such as Ammon, Moab, and Edom, etc.
In any case, I am not really drawing a clear conclusion here.
But first of all, the conclusion that everyone wants to draw here—that God behaves morally—is already really not certain; on the contrary, Abraham demanded it, but he was not convinced that this is how it works.
But from the many places where there is collective punishment,
my impression is that something needs to be updated regarding the understanding of the contradiction between morality and God.
I do not know exactly what.
As for the issue of a contradiction between God’s actions and morality, I have a remark about that.
For example, we see the greatest moral wrong in murder.
Now what exactly is the problem with murder, if it does not hurt?
And let us assume it does not hurt the family either, etc.
Apparently it is the loss of life itself. But if we knew additional details about a case where God takes someone’s life, we would not see any problem with it at all.
Now I am not emptying out the concept of good and evil at all; the concept is exactly what we understand—good is benefit to someone or pleasure. It is only our lack of knowledge of the details that makes us say murder is terrible.
But when the Master of all kills someone, maybe afterward he celebrates, etc. etc.