Ramban notes that if we assume that there are situations in which the reason for suffering is entirely inscrutable, it is quite understandable that prophets throughout the generation asked “why.” As explained, the “why” question on the part of the prophets was purely an intellectual pursuit, asked on the plane of thematic Halakhah and philosophy, not about any particular case of tzadik v’ra lo. Given their lack of understanding, they petitioned God to explain the concept of evil to them.
However, if we understand the Gemara to have offered answers to the query, and we accept the explanation of sod ha’ibur, one wonders why prophets the likes of Yirmiyahu, Chabakuk, and David would ask “why.” Do they not already know the answers?
Ramban addresses this question.((Shaar HaGemul, #78)) Though the prophets were fully aware that some minimal transgressions or sins of a past life account for tzadik v’ra lo, this knowledge did not preclude prayer. Their petitioning was not for an answer, but “rather, simply like the words of an ailing individual [who is] languishing in his illness, expressing the enormity of his sickness, and screaming about the distress and pain, wondering how this [pain] could happen to him.”((Ibid.)) The question is rhetorical. The prophets feel the pain of the tzadik v’ra lo and cry out viscerally, petitioning God on their behalf, searching for resolution and healing. They call out to God not inquisitively, but prayerfully.
This explanation bears an important perspective. R. Soloveitchik eloquently distinguished between two levels of interaction with the question of tzadik v’ra lo: the practical and the theoretical. The theoretical plane is one of philosophy. On this level, one can and should ask “why.” However, the practical plane demands seeking a solution, asking “for what,” and repurposing the suffering for spiritual growth. Prayer, too, belongs to this practical realm. Just as self-improvement and hilchos aveilus are pragmatic responses demanded by halacha; so too, prayer. The correct, appropriate, encouraged response of one who suffers or one who witnesses suffering is to call out to God in prayer, petitioning Him and beseeching Him to display His ultimate benevolence.
Even as the Jewish thinker crafts theological answers to “why,” defending God’s benevolence and explaining away evil as a non-entity, the same Jew simultaneously prays to his Maker, begging for mercy. Prayer is a human experience. Wholehearted belief in the benevolence of God and the absolute truth that everything God does is for the better does not in any way preclude passionate, desperate prayer.((This is an important perspective to keep in mind when considering the question of R. Yosef Albo and others: how may one pray for healing if God divinely ordained that we experience sickness? Many an answer have been proffered, but here we benefit from an additional perspective which may preempt the problem. Theodicy and prayer are not contradictory, but rather they exist, simultaneously, in two distinct realms.))
