Why Do Some Rabbis Claim To Know The Reason For Suffering?
Dear Jew in the City,A terrible tragedy befell the Jewish people this week when seven innocent children were killed in a fire in Brooklyn. As we mourn and attempt to comfort each other through this great sorrow I have heard that there are rabbis who claim to “know” the reason these precious souls were taken from us. From time to time you’ll hear that a rabbi or leader in the Jewish community publicly assigns blame to certain groups or actions after a tragedy occurs. Is this an appropriate way to think and talk in terms of Torah philosophy?-Troubled
Dear Troubled-Thanks for your question. I too am troubled by the people who claim to know the workings of God (as are the several rabbis and rebbetzins I consulted with about this topic), especially since prophecy ended two thousand years ago.
There is an example from Tanach (the Jewish Bible) of people who claim to know why suffering occurs: In the book of Job, when Job loses his family, his property and becomes sick, his friends come over to tell him he is to blame.
oh the inherent homoeroticism of blood-soaked bodies clinging to one another, the red honey dripping in excess, forming a path of ruin and murder. eyes seeking salvation, the other clouded with carnal affection. the head is thrown back, revealing the neck of smooth, Vestal skin, the knife in their hand’s dig deeper– harder. there exists no room for a fair hero and muse. in the consummation of the crime, lay the crimson limbs of a villain and their tortured lover
“Systems could be built, and rules could be made–if we could only get rid of consciousness. What makes mankind tragic is not that they are victims of nature, it is that they are conscious of it. To be part of the animal kingdom under the conditions of the earth is very well–but as soon as you know of your slavery, the pain, the anger, the strife–the tragedy begins.”
Dirnentragodie (“Tragedy of the Street”). 1927. Josef Fenneker.
36 ½ x 72 1/8 in./92.7 x 183.2 cm
You can already see, in this riveting two-sheet poster, why the Danish actress Asta Nielsen was the first international star of silent film: the large dark eyes, a haunted face, her boyish figure. She often portrayed headstrong, passionate women trapped by tragic circumstances: transforming this melodramatic trope with naturalism and overt eroticism – leading her films to be heavily censored in the U.S. “Dirnentragodie,” or ‘Tragedy of the Street,’ was Nielsen’s final silent role. The film epitomizes the Weimar movement called The New Objectivity, which tried to create a middle ground between Brechtian alienation and Expressionist emotionalism by forcing middle-class characters into the oppressive social circumstances of the street. “Dirnentragodie” features Nielsen as an aging prostitute who takes in a young man running away from his middle-class family. She fantasizes about a different future; the man returns to his family; she’s accused of murdering her pimp. This 1927 Fenneker design was used for the release of the film in Vienna.
“Time travelers didn’t stop aging, even if they only went back a few hours to alter some personal crisis. A stubborn traveler could lose years trying to fix one horrid day. If a fellow traveler heard the bad news and said, “you look awful,” it was a compliment to their dedication.”
-QuietPineTrees
The publisher Unbound is raising funds for the new Quiet Pine Trees book! The deadline is just a few weeks out, and if you miss it, you won’t be able to go back and change the past. We’re all stuck in the present, so please consider pledging!
This project was drawn in 2020. There is story about little country, that was going through nuclear attack during one week. Now the events described in the pictures are felt more painful. Let there be peace.
A whaler’s daughter, out at sea. An orphaned son, building a treehouse for her return. The letters they write back and forth to one another, carried by the waves via the ship-captain’s liquor bottles.
Their love.
Their beginnings. Their new beginnings.
Their Correspondence.
-{I DID NOT WRITE ANY OF THIS ALL CREDIT GOES TO LEVI …
