30.01 Outline (pps.16-20)
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The righteous man should have acted more forcefully in promoting righteousness or interceding for his people.
The tzaddik is held to a much higher standard?58
A tzaddik‘s suffering is atonement for all the people.
The righteous will get their reward in the world-to-come59
There are some merits for which God rewards in this world, and there are merits for which God bestows reward in the world-to-come.60
The tzaddik is “gathered in” prior to the appearance of great evil.61
Group IV B. Other mainstream traditional responses regarding man in general
In recompense for his suffering, man will receive his reward in the world-to-come; man suffers in this world to purify him and clear his slate for the world to come; sins are forgiven through suffering.62
The individual is punished along with the rest of the community for communal sin (“horizontal reponsibility”).63
The sin of Adam brought suffering upon the world.
The concept of yissurin shel ahavah —tribulations of love64
to purify man, to ennoble man, to chasten man;65
to raise man to a higher level;66
to test man;67
through suffering comes redemption;68
to increase man’s reward in the world-to-come.69To provoke man to reflect on his inadequacies and propel man to develop his potentiality.70
The process of Divine justice takes time and man must have patience.
Man is responsible for sin and suffering, not God.
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58 ” ‘Nevertheless,’ said Rav Abba, ‘his [Hanina’s] son died of thirst,’ ‘because . . . God deals particularly strictly with those near to him’ (Yeb. 121 b; R. T. p. 349).” As cited in Montefiore and Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology, p. 553.
59 See Sifre Deuteronomy, Re’eh, no. 53, foi, 86a. as cited in Montefiore and Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology, p. 549. See also Chagigah 15a. See also outline of talmudic discussion on this viewpoint in Ramban, Gate of Reward, chap. 9, in Writings and Discourses, vol. 2, p. 504.
60 See outline of talmudic discussion on this viewpoint in Ramban, Gate of Reward, chap. 1, in Writings and Discourses, vol. 2, p. 425.
61 See Isaiah 57: 1. “The righteous [individual] is taken away from the evil to come.” See also Baba Kama 60a.
62 See outline of talmudic discussion on this viewpoint in Ramban, Gate of Reward, chap. 4, in Writings and Discourses, vol. 2, pp. 440,452-453. See also Berachot 7a. See various commentaries on Psalms 73:2-19.
See also Sifre Deuteronomy, Va’ethehanun, no. 32, hi. 73b, as cited in Montefiore and Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology, p. 544.
Note also: “Rav Shimon ben Lakish said: . . . as salt enhances meat, so chastisements purify the sins of man” (T. B. Berachot 5a).
63 See also Leviticus 26:37. “And they shall stumble one upon the other.” However, Sanhedrin 27b clarifies as follows: “So are they not all responsible one for the other? Only if one could have prevented the other’s misdeeds, and if he did not do so.”
64 “Raba (some say Rav Hisda) said . . . If a man who suffers searches his ways for sin. and then for neglect of Torah study, but find neither, let him be sure these are ‘tribulations of love’ ” (T. B. Berachot 5a).
Cf. T B. Kiddushin 39b.
65 “Whom God loves He chastens, even as the father chastens the son of whom he is fond” (Proverbs 3: 12); “Happy is the man whom thou chastenest, O God, and whom thou teacheth from Thy Torah” (Psalms 94: 12).
66 See Midrash Psalms on Psalms 73: 1 (167a, no. I) as cited in Montefiore and Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology, p. 544.
67 See Genesis 22:l. “And God tried Abraham.” See Psalms 11:5. “The Eternal trieth the righteous.” See outline of talmudic discussion on this viewpoint in Ramban, Gate of Reward, chap. 3, in Writings and Discourses, vol. 2, p. 445.
68 “Rav Shimon ben Yochai says: ‘The Holy One, blessed be He, gave Israel three precious gifts, and all of them were given only through sufferings. These are: The Torah, the Land of Israel, and the world-to-come’ ” (T. B. Berachot 5a).
69 See Rashi on Berachot 5a, in disagreement with Ramban, Gate of Reward, chap. 3, Writings and Discourses, vol. 2, p. 443.
70 Luban, “The Kaddish,” p. 207.
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