Berakhot 159

So far in this excursus we have noted that Rambam creates three categories for perceived evils (or suffering): suffering that is the result of our being alive in this universe; suffering that people bring upon themselves; and suffering that is caused by other human beings. We have also noted that the overwhelming majority of the suffering that there is in this world is caused by what human beings do to other human beings.

Many people find it difficult to accept the idea that God will not intervene to prevent wrong being done. Consciously or unconsciously they expect God to act as some kind of Universal Crime Prevention Officer, or Celestial Policeman. This is an absolute impossibility if we are to maintain man's moral and behavioural autonomy.

Man – all of mankind – is capable of unthinkable evil. There are only two powers in existence that control and limit that capability. One is a person's moral conscience. The other is physical force brought to bear by other human beings to prevent the evil being perpetrated.

I do not think that Rambam was prepared to recognize the universality of morals. He viewed what we called morals as muskamot – behavioural patterns that a group of people has accepted upon itself by agreement, tacit or explicit. Monogamy seems to our own moral sense to be an obvious requirement for the person who wishes to behave rightly; a South-Sea islander might well see bigamy in a similar light and look upon our monogamous culture with the same misgivings as we look upon his bigamous behaviour. The same would apply to countless other items of our moral code and behaviour patterns. (In the Guide for the Perplexed [1:2] Rambam even puts the wearing of clothes among the muskamot.)

The only force that we Jews can view as binding regardless of our subjective codes is the stipulations of the Torah. We do not refrain from theft, murder or adultery because these are obviously immoral: we do so because the Torah requires this of us. In this we have had an enormous influence over the thinking of the greater part of the human race, in that Christians and Moslems have taken their moral code from the stipulations of the Torah as we taught them. (Other peoples and faiths also accept these requirements from a different source, whatever it might be.)

But no one can prevent a person from stealing, murdering or committing adultery if they choose so to act. And it makes no difference how many times and how many people are involved. As I mentioned a few shiurim ago, when Cain murdered one quarter of the human race (as it were), God did not stop him or otherwise prevent him from perpetrating his evil design. God explains to him afterwards that he acted as he did because he did not restrain himself, and that it is his duty to rule over his baser instincts and not let them rule him. That is all.

So, I believe that the question that one often hears asked, "Where was God during the Holocaust?" is the wrong question. God will no more prevent such a colossal tragedy than he would prevent John Doe from stealing a doughnut from a bakery. Only John Doe can do that – and failing that, anyone else who can exercise some power of coercion over John Doe. And God will not prevent us from destroying ourselves in some world-wide nuclear Armageddon; only we can do that. God warns and judges, but does not play the policeman. So the question should be rephrased: "Where was the rest of mankind during the Holocaust?" (Perhaps this is something that we should bear in mind as we near the twenty-fifth Yahrzeit of Rabbi Avraham Yehoshu'a Heschel. I am my brother's keeper, and God will not help us if we drop our vigilance.)

But God does seem to "interfere" in a round about way. Rambam discusses the fact that there are stories in the Torah that seem to contradict his thesis. Very well-known is the recurring phrase in the Exodus story that "God hardened Pharaoh's heart". How come that God deprives Pharaoh of his moral autonomy? Rambam's answer, in a nutshell, is as follows:

Sometimes a person will behave in a way that is so outrageous or cruel that Divine Justice cannot permit the possibility of Repentance. It is an axiom of Judaism that nothing stands in the way of true and sincere repentance. Pharaoh did not blanch at giving the order to massacre fully one half of the Israelite people. Such a massacre must find its just reward. Therefore, once Pharaoh has embarked upon his stubborn path, God intervenes and, as it were, closes the door behind him: there is now no escape; and he must follow his chosen path through to its bitter end. He cannot repent. That is why God hardens Pharaoh's heart: to prevent his repentence.

It may, perhaps, be easier for us to understand this point if we consider for a moment the following (imaginary) scenario. We are in the Chancery bunker deep in the heart of Berlin, Germany, and the date is May 1945. Adolf Hitler places the barrel of his pistol at his temples. During the split second before he pulls the trigger to commit suicide he has a flash of complete and utter remorse. He sees his whole life pass before him in a flash and truly and sincerely repents of everything he has ever done wrong. Can we imagine to ourselves that God would forgive him, since nothing stands in the way of true repentance? This cannot be, so it may not be permitted to come to pass. Hitler chose his evil path, and at a certain stage God determines to keep him on that evil path through to his bitter end. And we can pinpoint that stage. In his book "The Modern Jew faces Eternal Problems", Aaron Barth describes how he related to the news that Hitler had declared war on his erstwhile ally, Russia. It seemed incredible that, with all his successes on the Western front, Hitler would open up an Eastern front when there was no need to do so. Barth wrote from Eretz-Israel to his son in the USA, "This day God has hardened Pharaoh's heart". What a wonderful insight.

To be continued.