When tragedy strikes, where is God?

• Published date: 07 October 2021
• Author: STEWART WEISS
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

On September 30, our family commemorated the 19th yahrtzeit of our eldest son, Sgt. Ari Yehoshua Weiss, who fell in battle against Hamas terrorists in Nablus in 2002; Moran Ben-Eli and her three children Dekel, age 15, Liam, 11 and Annael, 5 were laid to rest after being killed in a horrific collision with a school bus in the upper Galilee; and Rabbi Moshe David Tendler, one of Orthodoxy's leading lights for more than half a century and a beloved teacher of mine, was buried in New York.

This was a day for crying and contemplation, and a day for once again posing that most probing, most essential eternal theological question: Simply put, does God exist, and if so, how does he interface with the universe? Is there a vigilant, involved, all-knowing Creator "minding the store," or are we at the mercy of capricious fate and fortune – be it good or bad – which operates independently of a higher power? For anyone who has, or is suffering, for anyone who has lost something precious – particularly if that loss seems to be cruel, unjust or undeserved – this is more than just mental gymnastics; it cuts right to the heart of our belief system and directly impacts the moral compass that allows us to maintain our sanity and move forward with productive lives.

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It would seem to be a spiritual Gordian Knot: If God is indeed in complete control of the world's events and micro-manages his creatures' existence, then why do tragedies occur? Why do children die in an instant on the road; why does evil flourish, why are some selected for lives of ease while others – seemingly good people – struggle to simply survive? And if God is not either willing or capable of managing the planet's affairs and seeing to it that justice is done, then how do we rationalize praying to a "merciful, compassionate" deity in the face of these catastrophes? Is life simply a random sequence of events, a rudderless ship without a captain at the helm?

Since the dawn of time, the brightest minds have grappled with this problem. Cain, who killed his brother Abel – the worst crime in history, whereby 25% of the world's known population was murdered – expressed this quandary and confusion when he remarked, "Am I my brother's keeper?!" The emphasis here was on the "I." Cain was essentially challenging God: "You supposedly control the world; if Abel lies dead, surely that...