With this, I would like to address a wonderful yesod from the words of the Be’er Yosef of Salant. Throughout a person’s life, questions arise about the ways of the Boreh Olam. Even Moshe Rabbeinu asked: הוֹדִ עֵנִי נָא אֶת דְּ רָכֶיך – Please show me Your ways. Moshe wanted to know, “Why is it bad for the righteous and good for the wicked?” The Chafetz Chaim offers a parable: It is like someone who comes to shul and sees the gabbai distributing aliyot. He approaches the gabbai and says, “Why are you making such a mess? Take each row in the shul and give an aliyah to each person one Shabbat at a time!” The gabbai responds, “Welcome to shul! This one is a chatan today, that one has a yahrzeit, the one in the corner has a bris... What is this? You suddenly come and try to manage my shul for me?!”
So too, Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to us: “You were just born, and you’re already trying to manage My world and asking, ‘Why, why, why?!’ I created an entire world – a complete system – and there’s an entire procedure at work here!” Similarly, Chavakuk said: טְהוֹר עֵינַיִם מֵרְאוֹת רָע וְהַבִּיט אֶל־עָמָל לֹא תוּכָל לָמָּה תַבִּיט בּוֹגְדִ ים תַּחֲרִישׁ בְּבַלַּע רָשׁ ָע צַדִּ יק מִמֶּנּוּ׃ ...ְ בָ הּ עַ ל־מִ שׁ ְ מַ רְ תִּ י אֶ עֱמ ֹדָ ה וְ אֶ תְ יַצ עַל־מָצוֹר וַאֲצַפֶּה לִרְאוֹת מַה־יְדַבֶּר־בִּי וּמָה אָשִׁיב עַל־תּוֹכַחְתִּי׃ Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot gaze upon iniquity; why do You look upon the treacherous and remain silent when the wicked swallows the righteous? ... I will stand at my watch post and station myself on the rampart; I will look to see what He will say to me and what I shall reply concerning my complaint.
Rashi says: Chavakuk drew a circle and stood within it, saying, “I will not move from here until I hear what He will say to me regarding my question – why does He look and see the success of the wicked, and what shall I reply to those who come to argue before me?”
Chazal in the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni, 563) bring Chavakuk’s questions and present his Tefillah. Chavakuk saw Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya enter the fiery furnace and escape. And he saw Rabbi Chananya ben Teradyon and his colleagues burned in fire. Upon seeing this, he challenged Hakadosh Baruch Hu: “These are righteous and those are righteous; these are pure and those are pure; yet these are burned and those are saved! עַל כֵּן תָּפוּג תּוֹרָה וְלֹא יֵצֵא לָנֶצַח מִשְׁפָּט – Therefore, the Torah fails, and justice never prevails. Nevuchadnetzar is impure, while Daniel is holy and pure, yet Nevuchadnetzar appoints Tzidkiyahu and clothes Daniel in purple. Achashverosh is impure, while Mordechai is holy and pure, yet he clothes Mordechai. Pharaoh is impure, while Yosef is holy and pure, yet Pharaoh appoints Yosef. For the wicked crowns the righteous, therefore justice is perverted. Avraham did Your will, and You only gave him a son at one hundred years old. Achav, an idol-worshipper, fathered seventy sons! Sarah did Your will, and You only gave her a son at ninety years old. Jezebel, daughter of priests, bore seventy sons!“
Hakadosh Baruch Hu revealed Himself to Chavakuk and said: “Are you challenging Me? Is it not written ל אֱמוּנָה וְאֵין עָוֶל-אֵ – A G-d of faithfulness and without injustice?” At that moment, Chavakuk said: “In error, I spoke.” And thus, the Tefillah of Chavakuk begins (3:1): תְּפִלָּה לַחֲבַקּוּק הַנָּבִיא עַל שִׁגְיֹנוֹת – A prayer of Chavakuk the prophet, concerning errors.
The Be’er Yosef also discusses Shlomo HaMelech: יֶשׁ ־הֶבֶל אֲשׁ ֶר נַעֲשָׂה עַל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשׁ ֶר יֵשׁ צַדִּ יקִים אֲשׁ ֶר מַגִּיעַ אֲלֵהֶם כְּמַ עֲשֵׂה הָרְ שׁ ָעִים וְיֵשׁ רְ שׁ ָעִים שׁ ֶמַּ גִּיעַ אֲלֵהֶם כְּמַ עֲשֵׂה הַצַדִּ יקִ ים אָמַ רְ תִּ י שׁ ֶגַּם־זֶה הָבֶל׃ There is a vanity which is done upon the earth: there are righteous men who suffer as if they had performed the same deeds as those who are wicked; and there are wicked men who receive reward as if they had performed the same deeds as the righteous; I said that this too is vanity.
This question and perplexity has caused many casualties, as people see, chas v’shalom, the order of the world’s conduct reversed: those who are high are lowered, and those who are low are raised. And similarly, as we find in the Gemara (Kiddushin 39b), regarding Elisha ben Avuyah. He saw the tongue of Chutzpit the translator being dragged through the streets and desecrated, and he said: “A mouth that used to bring forth pearls of Torah- shall it now lick the dust?!” He then went out and sinned.
Not only do flesh and blood ask questions, but angels too. When they saw Rabbi Akiva’s flesh being raked with iron combs, they asked: “?רבש"ע, זוֹ תּוֹרָה וְזוֹ שְׂכָרָהּ – Ribbono Shel Olam, this is Torah and this its reward?!” When they see a mother killed together with her son, they ask: “Master of the Universe, You wrote in the Torah that with regards to an ox or a sheep, you shall not slaughter it and its young on the same day!” When they see a person murdered, his blood spilled like water, they say, “Ribbono Shel Olam, when slaughtering a bird or animal, we cover its blood with earth, but here, the blood of Yisrael is spilled like water! What is going on here?!”
