![]() As Jeremiah 9:12 puts it, “Why was the land destroyed? … Because they left my Torah.” Both Leviticus and Deuteronomy promise health and prosperity if God’s laws are followed, and destruction and even exile if they aren’t. ![]() ![]() Throughout the Torah and the later rabbinic writings, the retributivist approach was the dominant one. The other general approach avoids taking this step, whether by locating the root cause of evil in something other than God, denying the existence of evil, or pleading an inability to understand God’s ways. One is the retributivist approach, whereby all suffering is the result of a specific sin. Jewish tradition offers two general approaches to this problem. From this perspective, not only is the question of righteous suffering a challenge, but so is the prospering of evildoers. The problem is compounded by the principle of sakhar va-onesh - literally “reward and punishment,” the notion that God rewards the good and punishes the bad. While some religions can resort to explanations that paint God as less than omnipotent or completely benevolent, that would seem to be beyond the pale for classical Jewish theology, which insists that God is both. The problem of evil, or theodicy, is a straightforward but deeply challenging one: How can an all-powerful and all-good God be the steward for a world that is home to so much evil and suffering? My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help Donate ![]()
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