Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Auschwitz

[Cypress]

When Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was asked where God was at Auschwitz, he said that it was the wrong question, and we should be asking where humans were at that time and place. In other words, we should not blame God for the messes we make through our own choices. God really did leave it to up to us to finish the garden world in which we were placed, to create the world of justice and peace of which God dreams.

A more scientific way of saying this is that after our genetic evolution essentially ended 40,000 years ago, evolution moved to consciousness, and we thus became conscious and responsible for our further evolution.



source: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel as reported by Ron MIller of Lake Forest College

 

[Daylight63]

I think the story in Genesis about the Fall is a perfect analogy for growing up and taking responsibility for our actions.

Think of it: the tree was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Upon eating of the fruit humans suddenly had knowledge of good and bad and were then required to act according to that knowledge. The "Fall" was really just what happens when you grow up. As a child you are not expected to know right from wrong all that well, but upon maturing you are 100% responsible for your own actions.

So I can see the Rabbi's point here.

However it does let God off the hook a bit. The humans most negatively impacted and hurt the most were the ones least likely to have any agency in any of the situations that resulted in their pain and suffering. The "choice" to do good or ill in this case is spread across "all of society" to some greater or lesser extent and that isn't really "just" or "fair".

If there IS a God that we are required to worship should there not be some reason to worship it? Why would I worship what amounts to an inert blob of nothingness who can sit by while countless innocents are tortured to death?