Exiled Because of Our Sins: Jewish Perspectives on Evil and Suffering
27th Annual Spring Class with Marc Ashley
Four class sessions on Sunday mornings at 10 am
April 12, April 19, April 26, and May 3 (Zoom only)
Click on date to view recording: April 12, April 19, April 26, May 3
Is God fair? Classical Jewish thought posits a God that is omnipotent, omniscient and wholly good. Yet the enduring existence of evil and suffering in the world, on both individual and communal levels, poses a formidable challenge to the logic and viability of religious faith. How can a wholly good and just God allow the wicked to prosper, the righteous to suffer, and injustice to prevail? Even more pointedly, how can a merciful and attentive God – who established a special covenantal relationship with Jews – allow his chosen people to experience innumerable calamities?
Jewish thinkers have grappled with the thorny persistence of bad people doing evil things, causing distress to those who deserve a better fate. Jewish tradition, reflected in festival liturgy we continue to chant at Or Zarua, has often rationalized Jewish suffering as punishment for sinning. Yet cumulative atrocities – most recently the Holocaust and October 7th – make that causal connection appear theologically obscene. The perennial problem of seemingly ineradicable evil and resulting heartrending suffering can threaten Jewish belief in a caring God and puncture simple optimism in a bright future. Justice in the world may seem remote or illusory; traditional Jewish texts may offer a measure of clarity and comfort.
Marc Ashley explores these pressing issues, an inescapable feature of our fraught times, in these four successive Sunday morning classes between Passover and Shavuot.