Sunday, October 25, 2009

"Does each and every living being matter to God?"


"The questions posed by the Holocaust are not different, in principle, from those raised by the heartbreaking experience of visiting a children's cancer ward.

Whether it is Jews, children, or little mice, the question is basically the same: does each and every living being matter to God?

Many times the Bible describes the concept of redemp­tion as a birth.

Redemption will also come with pain, blood, and a fair amount of screaming.

We are allowed to scream; we are allowed to say, "You may be right, but I want to know why!"

Someday we will all pass on to an­other, clearer world and have a different view of the Almighty.

Then we will either be able to complain prop­erly, or we will no longer have any need to complain.

In the realm of theology, the philosopher and the be­liever ask basically the same question, but from two very different angles, which are like a circle and its center.

The philosopher says, "The world exists, so how can there be a God?"

He is trying to find a way from the circumference to the center.

The believer, on the other hand, says, "God exists; how, then, can there be a world?"

He tries to find a path connecting the center to the circumference.

Some­times, both the philosopher and the believer are success­ful; they find good answers, and they meet.

When they fail, however, each of them is left with the question.

If one could choose, I think that rather than being left with the question "I am in the world; how can God exist?" it is far better to be left with "I am with God, I just do not under­stand how this world can exist."

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz


From
Simple Words by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz