Q&A: Ariel and Kfir Bibas, of blessed memory
Ariel and Kfir Bibas, of blessed memory
Question
According to your view, the Creator stopped intervening in the world so that we would learn to manage on our own.
What were Ariel and Kfir Bibas, of blessed memory, supposed to do with their suffering in order to cope and manage with human evil?
What does the Creator think about the fact that He looks on and takes interest in it from above (according to your view, He is very interested, even if He does not intervene)?
Answer
This is just demagoguery devoid of logic. I’ll start with the demagoguery. Why resort to children? What is an adult supposed to do when someone decides to shoot him?
The claim that we have to manage on our own is addressed to humanity as a whole, not to an individual person. If one person harms another, then that is our fault (of humanity as a whole). We should have solved this ourselves and not chosen evil.
And now to the logic (or rather, its absence). The alternative is that the Holy One, blessed be He, is involved and runs everything. Not us. So now you do understand what happened to the Bibas children? After all, your view is much harder to reconcile with these events.
Discussion on Answer
I explained everything, and you choose to ignore it and repeat the same questions again. There is no point in continuing.
Let’s start with logic: in Judaism there is a claim that everything comes from the Creator. That is, everything is heavenly accounting, and there is a reason for their suffering, even if we have no idea how it all fits together.
This is not emotionally easy in situations like the one I mentioned in the question. But according to Judaism there are apparently matters such as reincarnation of souls, or suffering that happens because of the sins of the fathers.
But I can’t prove that, and certainly not the specific case of the Bibas family, of blessed memory, but it is surely far more moral and logical than thinking about:
“A God who cares from heaven but does not act on behalf of those who can do nothing, especially babies.”
By the way, there are situations where there is no human evil but natural evil, like a flood that is about to strike and cause suffering to many children. Even then will we blame ourselves for not having solved the forces of nature?
So I’ll sum up by saying that the logic is on my side, when all the cards are laid on the table.
As for the demagoguery—why resort to children? An adult who falls into suffering and is helpless can at least still act in various directions. For example, a person caught in a storm at sea can at least swim toward shore or pray or simply hope for the best.
Small children have no developed awareness, and then one bright day they had no idea why their lives had changed into such a great hell.
That too is quite obvious.
Your approach on this issue is so weak compared to Jewish tradition.