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If you want comforting answers, don’t bother reading any further. However, if you want a perspective based on traditional Jewish thought, and are not afraid to rethink how G-d runs the world, please read on. The issues involved are complex, and it is unfair and irresponsible to try to attach any specific approach to any specific event. In his introduction to the Book of Job, Nachmanides posits that the question of the righteous suffering cannot really be asked, for several reasons. First of all, we cannot know for sure who is righteous (this would be difficult to apply to large-scale suffering or to victims too young to be held responsible for anything). Secondly, the Talmud teaches us that G-d prefers to punish the righteous (who have sinned, despite being mostly righteous) in this world rather than in the next world. Nachmanides also refers to the kabbalistic concept of “ibur,” or “gilgul,” i.e. reincarnation, suggesting that a person can suffer in a current lifetime for sins committed in a previous lifetime. Some add the Talmudic suggestion that G-d sometimes increases a person’s suffering in this world in order to increase his or her reward in the next world. Others suggest that this is a lone opinion in the Talmud, not widely held. Be that as it may, even though these ideas can explain some circumstances of suffering, they are not, in my opinion, the overriding explanation of how G-d runs the world.

Before presenting the crux of the approach I have gleaned from the traditional commentaries, I must present the guidelines within which it operates. These are “givens” that might be worthy of a separate discussion as to why or how they became a “given,” but if they are not the starting point for this discussion, there is no need for this discussion.

Given #1) There is a Creator. (If there is no Creator, there is no need to discuss how He or She allows any suffering.)

Given #2) The Creator is still involved in the world He or She created. (If not, things don’t have to make sense, as no one is overseeing what happens to make sure it does.)

Given #3) The Creator is just. (If not, there’s no need to try explaining how things that seem unjust can happen.)

Given #4) The Creator has the ability to stop things that are unjust from happening. (If He or She can’t do anything about it, we can’t assign blame for not doing so.)

Operating under these guidelines, we can try understanding why a just Creator Who has the ability to prevent tragedy from happening, allows it to happen nonetheless.

G-d created a world with natural laws, what we call the “laws of nature.” With rare exceptions, G-d always works within these laws. Therefore, for example, oil always burns, and can reliably be used as fuel. Whether G-d set it up so that oil always burns, or actively makes it burn each and every time it is used for fuel has no practical difference. Traditional Jewish thought leans heavily towards the latter, but again, for our purposes it is irrelevant whether G-d “commanded” oil to burn so that it does without His constant direct involvement or issues a new “command” that it burn every time. The bottom line is that there are natural laws, and G-d either allows them to operate or continues to make them operate.

This will not answer our question, as G-d could suspend those natural laws if He/She wanted, or, more likely, work within the laws of nature to alter the outcome. For example, there are many stories about people who were late to work on 9/11, allowing them to not be in the Twin Towers when they were attacked. It gets complex if we try to dissect where along the line G-d intervened, but it seems obvious to me that G-d must have intervened for so many people to have been late to work that day. They may each have their own story, and we can’t discount the fact that somehow those planes left on time (had there been the normal delays so many more would have arrived at work before the planes did), or that there were additional prayers said in synagogue that morning (“Selichos”), thereby delaying those that said them, or that many Giant fans went to work late because the Giants game ended late the night before (yes, I believe the Giants made it to the Super Bowl the previous year at least partly so that they would be chosen to play in the following season’s Monday night opener). Similarly, earthquakes occur rather frequently, most of which do not adversely affect humans. Even if the outcome of the natural laws should be an earthquake that causes much devastation, G-d could easily cause the shifting of the plates to occur slightly differently, bringing about a less severe outcome (and, for all we know, He/She does quite often). So why doesn’t G-d prevent natural disasters from causing such devastation?

Let’s start on a much smaller scale. Spiders eat flies. Birds eat worms. What did the fly do wrong to deserve being devoured by the spider? Should G-d prevent all worms from being used as fishing bait since they never sinned? Animals do not have free will. Instinct, perhaps, but not the knowledge of “good” and “evil,” and therefore no ability to choose between them. How does G-d allow some worms to survive and others to be eaten? It may not be “fair” that one worm survives while the other doesn’t, but that doesn’t make it unjust. Worms serve several purposes, one of which is their place on the food chain. The worm that is eaten by a bird has fulfilled its purpose, even without having chosen to. There is no reason for G-d to intervene to prevent the worm from being eaten, and His/Her allowing it has no bearing on His/Her being just.

Traditional Jewish sources indicate that G-d’s involvement with us depends on our involvement with Him/Her. Our relationship with G-d determines if and when G-d will intervene on our behalf. As the Meiri (Soteh 2a) puts it, being abandoned by G-d, left to the wolves, as it were, is the punishment for being detached from Him. (There is some discussion as to whether or not the extent of what could happen when detached from G-d is limited to the amount of punishment deserved based on a person’s actions/inactions.) In other words, the starting point is not divine protection, which can be lost by sinning, but being vulnerable to whatever life brings (whether the result of the natural laws or of someone else’s poor choices) unless we are attached to G-d.

Why is this the way G-d operates? Couldn’t He/She protect everybody even if they aren’t attached to Him/Her? Although G-d operating this way is very clear in the traditional sources, the answer to why it’s this way is not. The greater the amount and types of things that can go wrong, the greater the incentive to become attached to G-d in order to merit divine protection. I have suggested ( www.aishdas.org/ta/5764/kiTavo.pdf ) that the reason G-d created a world with the potential for so much disaster, the reason G-d allows tragedies to occur to those unattached to Him/Her, is precisely to get them to try getting closer to Him/Her. Knowing that the potential for so many possible problems can occur to those unattached to G-d is a pretty good reason to try to become attached.

The above applies to individuals; I do not recall seeing it applied to nations, nor do I know how it could be. A regime change can be decreed by G-d when the government in power does not provide for a functioning society (Abarbanel, I forget where, possibly by Sichone) and a defined group (city or country) that is wicked can also be destroyed by divine decree (Maimonides, Hilchos Teshuva 3:2). In these cases, any collateral damage suffered by those the decree is not made against is also a result of not being protected. Maimonides’ wording implies that such decrees cause destruction, not devastation.  The only exception to this concept applying to a nation (not just individuals) is when the divine presence rested on the Nation of Israel, which protected individuals in the nation even if they didn’t deserve this protection on their own. This no longer applies, as we are now in a state of “hester panim” (G-d’s face being “hidden”).

G-d built the potential for natural disasters (and diseases and people purposely trying to cause devastation) into the system, thus requiring us to be attached to Him/Her in order to be protected from it. Anybody affected either didn’t deserve protection, or was being sent a message that they need to improve. However, there would be no point in a message being sent to anyone not prepared to understand it. If our hearts cry out when we see others suffer, the response cannot be an attempt to figure out what they did wrong. We can try to determine how we can improve; not because our need for improvement brought about the suffering (it would be pretty self-centered to think that such devastation was sent on others just to send a message to a third-party), but because self-improvement is the first step towards re-attaching with G-d.

Is the standard set too high to merit divine protection? If we expect that all we should need to avoid suffering is to “be a good person” (leaving aside the definition of “good” and “good person” for now), then it certainly is. Many “good” people experience suffering well beyond what we would think they deserve. If, however, the system was designed to bring us back to our Creator, then we have to recalibrate our standards and set the bar much higher.