{"id":18,"date":"2006-10-05T14:49:51","date_gmt":"2006-10-05T14:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summametaphysica.com\/ge\/1000-theodicytheology\/1003-nadir-and-refinement\/"},"modified":"2018-04-23T15:51:04","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T15:51:04","slug":"1003-nadir-and-refinement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.summametaphysica.com\/ge\/1000-theodicytheology\/1003-nadir-and-refinement\/","title":{"rendered":"10.03 Nadir and Refinement (pps.5-7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

hard cover page 5<\/p>\n

There are those who argue\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand we are sympathetic with the thrust of their argument\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat the Holocaust represents a new extreme in evil, by dint of its intensity, magnitude, organized structure, and overwhelmingly diabolical nature. There are others who argue that the Holocaust was essentially just another atrocity, albeit on a larger scale, in a long line of ignominious atrocities perpetrated against the Jew and mankind.<\/p>\n

Regardless of which of these two general lines of reasoning is employed, no one can argue that our generation has not come face-to-face with gross abomination and evil. Our generation has counted the corpses of the tortured and brutalized; we may encounter survivors of Hell on a personal basis. We do not operate in the abstract. As a consequence, we exercise inherent rights of observation, analysis, and, if necessary, refinement of Jewish philosophical doctrine. With all due respect to the claims of abstract intellectual and historical analysis, the qualitative and emotional differences yielded by the present- day encounter with evil must lead us to scrutinize theological doctrine in our own light. Doctrine is always cogent in the<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 6<\/p>\n

abstract, but only attains validity when it succeeds in the face of harsh reality. And if philosophical doctrine cannot handle challenge, including the challenge of experience, reformulation within the bounds of dogma may be in order.<\/p>\n

The Holy One, blessed be He, rejoices in the dialectics of Torah. Read not here “dialectics” (pilpul)<\/em> but “creative interpretation” (hiddish).
\n<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dSoloveotchik15<\/sup><\/p>\n

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In the post-Holocaust environment, in particular,16<\/sup> there is a growing body of respected thinking which welcomes aggressive inquiry and legitimate reformulation\/refinement of Jewish thought.17<\/sup><\/p>\n

To avoid Auschwitz, or to act as though it had never occurred, would be blasphemous. Yet how [can we] face it and be faithful to its victims? No precedent exists either within Jewish history or outside it. Even when a Jewish religious thinker barely begins to face Auschwitz? he perceives the possibility of a desperate choice between the faith of a millennial Jewish past, which has so far persisted through every trial, and faithfulness to the victims of the present. But at the edge of this abyss there must be a great pause, a lengthy silence, and an endurance.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u201dFackenheim18<\/sup><\/p>\n

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The fact that one contends with the common theological formulations does not mean that one is contending with God. To put matters in further perspective, it should be noted that Jewish tradition gives wide berth to aggressive inquiry.19<\/sup> Occasionally God reveals His approval of those who contend with Him directly, as He did in the case of Job. He rejects the wellmeaning defenders of His “justice” toward Job in the words which He addresses to Eliphaz the Temanite:<\/p>\n

My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, As my servant Job hath…
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u201dJob 42:720<\/sup><\/p>\n

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15 <\/sup> Soloveitchik, Halakhic<\/em> Man, p. 1.<\/p>\n

16 <\/sup>Cf. Fackenheim, To Mend the World<\/em>, p. 11. “The cruelty and the killing raise the question whether even those who believe after such an event dare to talk about God who loves and cares without making a mockery of those who suffered. Theologians refusing to face this question-and ‘mutatis mutandis’ philosophers as well-merely seek refuge from a unique scandal in an unreal realm of abstract thought.” See also Fackenheim, The Jewish Return into History<\/em>, p. 32.<\/p>\n

17 <\/sup>Cf. Berkovits, Major Themes in modern Philosophies of Judaism<\/em>, p. vii. “Judaism is awaiting a reformulation of its theology and philosophy.” Cf. Borowitz, Choices in ModemJewish Thought<\/em>, p. 276. Cf. Greenberg, “Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire,” p. 24.<\/p>\n

18 <\/sup>Fackenheim, The Jewish Return into History<\/em>, p. 26.<\/p>\n

19 <\/sup>There is a concept in Judaism of makom hinichu lanu avoteinu le-hitgaber bam<\/em>, i.e., each generation has been left a portion of the Torah to reveal (in spite of the general, hierarchic, authoritative superiority of prior generations, due to their proximity to Sinai).<\/p>\n

20 <\/sup>Berkovits, With God in Hell<\/em>, p. 126.<\/p>\n

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The Holocaust shakes modern man’s confidence and many of his basic assumptions. While it may be philosophically true, and even possibly provable, that the death of one innocent is as great a philosophical problem as the death of several million innocents, it is the latter which unnerves the mass of humanity. It is the latter which opens the gates for a communal introspection and theological reassesment.21<\/sup><\/p>\n

For it is when the foundations of the entire community are still shaking, as opposed to the foundations of the immediate circle of a singular innocent victim, that the philosophical wisdom of the community is energized to creativity22<\/sup><\/p>\n

Many theodicies, including many Jewish ones, are so philosophically subtle or inscrutable that they are explicable only by suggesting that the perplexed inquirer study the entire body of works of the formulator and his sources, if not the bulk of the collected works of the Masorah<\/em> (corpus of Jewish canon, explication, and authentic tradition). A theodicy, however, must be understandable and acceptable to most people in order to be effective. It is not sufficient for a theodicy to be simply emotionally intriguing to a few ivory-tower theologians. Abstruse profundities should not play key roles for a “people of the book,” which prides itself on its intellectual primacy. As man is a key protagonist in religion, the philosophy of man’s interaction with God should be within reach of man.23<\/sup><\/p>\n

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21<\/sup> <\/sup>See Schulweis, Evil and the Morality of God<\/em><\/em>, p. 106.<\/p>\n

22 <\/sup>See Frankl, The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy<\/em> (New York: Bantam Books, 1967), p. 25. “The meaning of the whole is no longer comprehensible and goes beyond the comprehensible.”<\/p>\n

23<\/sup> See Hick, Evil and the God of Love<\/em><\/em>, p. 8. “By what authority must we insist upon maintaining an unrelieved mystery and darkness concerning God’s permission of evil?”<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 5 There are those who argue\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand we are sympathetic with the thrust of their argument\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat the Holocaust represents a new extreme in evil, by dint of its intensity, magnitude, organized structure, and overwhelmingly diabolical nature. 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