I believe there is one theme that underlies all of the events in chapters 18–22, the question of evil in the world. This is the most difficult challenge to the belief in G-d. How can G-d allow evil to exist in the world? As the Torah is a religious document it would be surprising if this question is not dealt with in the Torah, but the question is where? Many (due to Milton?) believe that the story of the Garden of Eden is the Torah's answer to evil in the world, that mankind sinned. However, as discussed above, I believe that Adam and Chava were supposed to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and hence their sin could not have doomed mankind. Instead, it is the events of chapters 18-22 that deal with the presence of evil in the world, and this is an appropriate place in the Torah for such a discussion as it follows chapter 17, which records the religious covenant of Avraham with G-d.
The question of evil begins with the discussion between Avraham and G-d concerning the fate of Sedom. However, prior to this discussion, 18:19 records that G-d wanted to explain to Avraham what was about to happen since Avraham's children would follow the ways of G-d to do what is just and right (JPS translation). This concern is not just with the judgment of Sedom, but rather G-d wanted Avraham to understand how G-d judged the world since only with this knowledge would Avraham's children be willing to follow in the ways of G-d.
18:20,21 record that G-d informed Avraham that the people of Sedom and Amora were evil and hinted that they were to be severely punished. G-d knew that Avraham would be concerned about the fate of the people of Sedom since he had saved them from the four kings, 14:21-23. Avraham presented two separate arguments to save the people of Sedom. The first, 18:23,25 is that the righteous should be saved, and the second, 18:24, is that even the evil people should be saved on the account of the righteous people. 18:25 ends the questions with an explicit challenge to G-d, "Shall then the judge of the whole earth not do justice?" Note the first question is the stronger question, as this is the theodicy question how come bad things happen to good people.
G-d responded to Avraham that if there were fifty righteous people then the city of Sedom would be spared, 18:26. This would seem to be the end of the discussion because G-d had even agreed to save the bad people on account of the presence of the good people. However, Avraham then continued to whittle down the number of required righteous people, from 50 to 45 to 40 to 30 to 20 to 10, and each time G-d agreed not to destroy the city based on Avraham's request. Why did Avraham start at fifty and stop at ten?
Avraham knew the people of Sedom. After he liberated them from the four kings, they had traveled together from Damascus down to the Dead Sea. In addition, most likely the people of Sedom would have been very grateful to Avraham. Furthermore, their behavior was probably more restrained when traveling on the road than when they were at home. Thus, Avraham did not think that all of the people of Sedom were sinners, and he thought for sure that there were fifty people who were not evil.
Avraham might have thought that G-d would respond by agreeing to a higher number 150, and then they would compromise at 100. However, G-d surprised Avraham by agreeing to 50, and then Avraham wondered maybe he could reduce the number to be sure that Sedom would not be destroyed. He stopped at ten, as Wenham (1994) notes that, "the tone of G-d's replies conveys the feeling that He cannot be pushed much further." Thus, Avraham was uncomfortable to keep reducing the number, but as he thought that for sure there were fifty innocent people in Sedom, then he was extremely confident that there were at least ten innocent people in Sedom.
The point of the discussion is not the numbers themselves, but to show the abyss between G-d's knowledge and man's knowledge. G-d knew how many righteous people there were in Sedom while Avraham had no idea. Avraham thought he knew the people of Sedom, but 19:4 records that all were evil since they all attacked the malakhim who came to visit Lot. Avraham's challenge to G-d was based on the idea that man can judge G-d, but through this discussion G-d showed that man is unable to judge G-d since man's knowledge cannot compare to G-d. Once this fact is established, the theodicy question is effectively answered; man cannot judge G-d.
The episodes after the destruction of Sedom also continue with the theodicy question. The next episode is the encounter between Avraham and Avimelekh, and this has two parts, 20:1-18 and 21:22-34. This episode explains that some of the people who suffer only appear to be innocent. 20:2 records that Avimelekh had his servants take Sara because he had been told that she was Avraham's sister. Yet, even if Sara was Avraham's sister, he still abducted her, and there is no mention that Sara agreed to be taken.
G-d appeared to Avimelekh in a dream to warn him that he was going to die for kidnapping Sara. Avimelekh responded by claiming that he was innocent, tam levavi ve-nekayon kapay, since neither Sara nor Avraham had stated that she was a married woman, 20:3-5. G-d responded that Avimelekh had acted with tam levavecha, but as pointed out by Rashi (on 20:6), G-d did not say that Avimelekh acted with nekayon kapay (clean hands). Many translators (see for example JPS) explain that tam levavecha means blameless and then Avimelekh is understood as being innocent. However, tam here means whole (see Fox) that Avimelekh's heart was whole as he had no doubts in his heart (see Hirsch) that he was innocent. Avimelekh's logic was that as long as a woman is not married, then the ruler of the area has a right to have sexual relations with her. Thus, he believed that he was acting in an appropriate manner, and hence he was whole with his heart. However, just because he thought rape with an unmarried woman is permitted, this does not make it morally right. Thus, when G-d responded to Avimelekh's claim of innocence, G-d did not state that Avimelekh acted with nekayon kapay, clean hands, since Avimelekh's hands were not clean, as he had wanted to rape Sara. We see that human knowledge (Avimelekh's) cannot equal the knowledge of G-d.
Avraham understood that Avimelekh was a fraud, and this can be seen on two occasions. When Avimelekh questioned Avraham, Avraham responded by accusing Avimelekh of being a potential murderer and of being a leader of a lawless place, 20:11. Avraham was arguing that while Avimelekh claimed to be innocent really he was guilty since an upright person would not be the leader of an evil population. Second, in 21:22, Avimelekh came to make a treaty with Avraham, and yet at the same time his servants were stealing the wells of Avraham, 21:25. Avraham reproached Avimelekh about the theft, but Avimelekh denied all knowledge of his servants' actions since as usual he claimed he was innocent, 21:25,26.
Meir Sternberg (1985) points out that the impression that Avimelekh is innocent is enhanced by the fact that the Torah waits until the end of the incident, 20:18, to relate that immediately after Avimelekh took Sara he was punished by becoming impotent. 20:4 records that Avimelekh did not approach Sara as part of his claim of innocence. The fact that he did not force himself upon Sara might lead one to think that he was acting honorably, but in reality he did not approach Sara since he was unable physically to have sexual relations with her. As Sternberg notes "His spirit was willing enough, only the flesh turned weak," and in 20:6 we learn that it was only G-d's intervention which stopped him from raping Sara. Thus, again the story of Avimelekh is where a person appears and claims to be innocent, but in reality is guilty.
The ensuing episode is the banishment of Hagar and Yishmael in order that Yishmael would not challenge Yitzhak's inheritance, 21:1-21. The banishment caused both Yishmael and Hagar to suffer, but it is difficult to argue that they deserved this punishment since the threat to Yitzhak was Yishmael's existence in the house and not something he had done. This impression is strengthened by the fact that Torah refers to him as a child, 21:14-16, even though he was at least fourteen years old. Avraham was worried about Yishmael, 21:11, but G-d told Avraham not to worry since Yishmael would found a nation. In the end the banishment was good for Yishmael because had he stayed in Avraham's house he still would have lost out to Yitzhak and he would not have founded a nation. This is a third answer to the presence of evil in the world. It is true that people sometimes suffer, but sometimes in the end the person is led to a better situation then previously, gam zu le-tovah. Furthermore, this episode again shows the abyss between human knowledge and G-d's knowledge. Avraham was worried about Yishmael, but G-d who knows the future knew that everything would be good with Yishmael.
The final episode is the akedah, 22:1-19. In this case, while Yitzhak was not killed he must have suffered when he realized that Avraham intended to kill him, and it is a possible that his passive behavior was an outcome of the akedah. Yitzhak clearly did not deserve to be punished since G-d was testing Avraham (22:1), and we never read that Yitzhak received any rewards for the akedah, only that Avraham was rewarded, 22:17-18. In this case, the Torah gives no explanation for Yitzhak's suffering, but we know that the entire incident was orchestrated by G-d as G-d decided to test Avraham and G-d stopped Avraham from killing Yitzhak, 22:1,11. This is the final response to the question of evil that sometimes there is no explanation but still this is not grounds to question G-d's existence. Again, we see that human knowledge is not comparable to G-d's knowledge as Avraham really believed that G-d wanted him to kill Yitzhak when really it was all a test. In addition, Avraham did not protest G-d's command to sacrifice Yitzhak as he did when G-d punished Sedom since he learned that his knowledge was not comparable to G-d's knowledge. Therefore, Avraham could no longer judge or question G-d.
All four episodes discussed above answer the question that Avraham asked of G-d in 18:25, "Shall then the judge of the whole earth not do justice?" Three episodes showed that in some cases, the existence of evil with a good G-d can be understood, but the fourth episode shows that at times the existence of evil is inexplicable as R. Yannai states "It is not in our hands (to understand) the security of the wicked or the suffering of the righteous," (Pirkei Avot 4:19). However, man cannot judge G-d since human knowledge is not comparable to divine knowledge.
No comments:
Post a Comment