This week’s Torah reading, Shemot, chronicles the beginning of the enslavement and oppression of our people in Egypt.
A question immediately comes to mind: G-d saw the Jewish children being thrown into the Nile. He heard the cry of the people being crushed by slavery. Why didn’t He do anything about it?
The obvious answer is, be patient. Wait to the end of the Torah reading; take a look at the readings for the next two weeks. You’ll see. He does act. He will afflict the Egyptians with awesome plagues and free our people with great miracles.
But the answer avoids the crux of the issue. What about those babies who were drowned and the slaves who were beaten? Why did they have to suffer? Just like G-d brought the redemption later, He could have brought it earlier and then saved so much distress and heartache.
The Natural Order
There are those who take G-d out of the picture. He is withdrawn; He allows man free choice and lets the natural order function according to its pattern. So if men or nations choose to act cruelly, it’s not His fault.
That answer takes G-d off the hook, as it were. But in doing so, it severely limits His influence on our lives and our connection with Him. For, according to this view, He is not actively involved in what happens to us. He created the world and observes it, but does not deal with its day-to-day functioning.
The Question
For a believer, this is a much crueler perspective than the first, for his relationship with G-d is far less inclusive. A believer wants to see G-d involved, not only in the major details of his life, but in every aspect, even the seemingly non-significant details.
As the Baal Shem Tov would say: When a leaf twirls in the wind, there is a specific G-dly desire that determines not only where it is going, but how many times it turns.
So how can He bear the pain of the babies and the slaves? If we as humans are sensitive to suffering shouldn’t He be? After all, our feelings stem from Him. The potential to empathize and to feel the pain and suffering of others that we possess exists, in a far superior manner, within Him. Indeed, the only reason we possess such a potential is because He has granted it to us. If we cannot bear the pain and suffering, how can He?
Trusting G-d
The answer is that just as His identification with us and love for us is endless, so too is His patience and forbearance. A parent loves his or her child and feels his pain, but there are times when despite the pain he or she feels, he will continue subjecting the child to the painful stimulus, because he knows that it is for the child’s own good.
How can the pain and suffering that the Jewish people underwent lead to good? We don’t know. It would be blasphemous for us to offer explanations, for the only way we could be able to understand G-d would be to be G-d.
But even when we do not understand Him, we can trust Him. We can realize that ultimately, everything that happens is in His hands and He will do what is best, for us as individuals and for the world at large.
Based on the teachings of the Rebbe, from Keeping in Touch, reprinted with perm. from Sichos in English
