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when tragedy strikes us the first
question usually asked is why me dr.
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harold kushner in his book when bad things happen to good
people explores some of the thinking concerning loss and
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suffering for his own personal tragedy of his
son's death dr. Kushner tries to bring some sense
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and meaning to those bad things
please join us as WT VI presents dr. Harold
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Kushner in the discussion of when
bad things happen to good people this
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program was recorded at Evans auditorium
when dr. Harold Kushner was the keynote
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speaker for the 6th annual living
Chile died conference in Charlotte North
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Carolina sponsored by
to life good evening Thank
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You Howard bishop Begley and colleagues in the clergy all
of you there see there are a lot of you out there tonight I
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hope you can all hear me if there's anybody here tonight
who can't hear me buy my book everything I have to say is
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it bad I'm really very
pleased to be here
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tonight and just so delighted that all of you would come out
it never fails to amaze me that I can come to a city where
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I've never been before like Charlotte where I virtually
don't know anybody and there'll be hundreds and hundreds of
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people who know me who feel that they knew my son Aaron and
who want to come out and and hear me talk about what the
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experience has taught me when I
find myself contemplating the remarkable
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success of my book but a book of 150
pages by an unknown New England rabbi
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becomes an international bestseller to my total amazement
to the astonishment of my publisher and for that matter to
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the astonishment of the two publishers who turned it down
while he could have had it birthday well that's another
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story and I asked why I think there two
reasons and the first reason is implicit
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in the Ginsburg story I think my book reached people
because it raises a question which sooner or later we all
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have to confront you live long enough
you care about enough people and
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inevitably you will find yourself asking
why good people have to suffer you will
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see the wrong people sick and the wrong people dying the
wrong people divorced and the wrong people unemployed and the
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wrong people earth by life you will look at that and you
will say why I don't understand it if there is a God in this
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world why do things like this happen and why do they happen
to her why do they happen to him you will go home tonight
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and put on the eleven o'clock news and inevitably
one of the first stories will be a story
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of tragedy a house fire in which
children die a fatal automobile accident
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you will pick up tomorrow morning's newspaper and somewhere
in the first few pages today's Charlotte Observer I happen to
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see the lead story college student killed as a st.
Patrick's Day party explodes into a fight same thing will be
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in tomorrow's paper it'll be a different tragedy it'll be an
automobile accident it'll be a murder someplace and you will
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look at each other and you say you know Robert Kushner was
right every day there's another story like this how does
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it keep on happening day
after day in this world that's the
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first reason for the impact of my book the question it deals
with is a question we all find ourselves asking the second
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reason is that when we ask the question we rapidly
find out that the conventional answers are not
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satisfactory if you've read my book or
the publicity about it or Howard alluded
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to this in his introduction you know the personal background
out of which I wrote it the death at age 14 of our son Aaron
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from that rare growth disorder progeria
the rapid aging syndrome which turned
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his body into the body of an old man when he was still
a child you may remember about two-and-a-half years ago
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the two boys who came to Disney World the boy from South
Africa the boy from Texas they had that same illness
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progeria that our son Aaron had died
of four years before we found out when
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Aaron was three what his life would be like how short it
would be and how full of pain it would be and that was hard to
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take but what made it even harder was
that when I as a clergyman tried to say
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to myself the same things that I was used to saying to
other people in their sorrow when I gave myself the same
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answers I've been giving them I found
out with a shock that these words were
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not comforting all those years I thought
I was helping people when I would sit
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with them and explain to them why this was happening in their
family but when I was on the receiving end of those words
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I wasn't helped at all people came when
they found out how sick Aaron was and
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they sat with my wife and myself
friends neighbors family colleagues and the
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clergy and they tried to make us feel better and make sense
of it and we heard all the conventional explanations and
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none of them made us feel better people
said to us God is sending this to your
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family because you're so strong in your
faith that you can handle it and you'll
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be an inspiration to others and all I
could think of at the moment was I wish
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I were a less religious and let God make an example
of some other family and I would have a healthy
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son about the time that Aaron was
dying I read a wonderful book the bereaved
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parent by Harriet ship and if any of
you have god forbid lost a child or if you
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know someone who's lost a child they've got to read Harriet
ships book the bereaved parent well I met Harriet ship
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shortly after that we were on a panel together she told
me what happened the day her son died during emergency
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surgery to correct the congenital heart defect her clergyman
came over to her in the hospital and said Harriet I know
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this is a hard time for you but you'll be all
right because God never sends us more of a
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burden than we can bear sounds very
pious very comforting very appropriate
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unless you've been in her situation you can't possibly imagine
what went through Harriet ship's mind at that moment she
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told me her first reaction to her rabbis
words was it's my fault it's my fault
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that Robbie died if I had been a weaker
person God would never have done this to
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me he would send us a scare and then
he'd recover people said to us if you're
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a man of faith you don't question God
you bow your head before his will but I
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was full of questions and I was full of
rage and pain and I didn't want anyone
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to take away my right to feel hurt
and to feel angry people said to us there
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are reasons for it which you can't understand now someday
you'll understand them I was doing a radio program in
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Chicago one night on WGN one of these call-in shows you know
listeners call in with our questions woman called in and
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said to me rabbi Kushner why can't you
accept the idea that God wanted your son
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to die so that you would become a
more sensitive person and write this
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wonderful book which is going to enrich the lives of
thousands isn't it worth one life to enrich the lives of
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thousands I said to her remember we're
in Chicago now I said to her ma'am do
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you remember john gacy wonder how many of you remember
john gacy this this man who killed those little boys and
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buried them in his basement in Illinois
I said suppose John Casey's defense
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attorney had gotten up in an Illinois Court or suppose
Wayne Williams defense attorney had gotten up in Atlanta and
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said instead of pleading insanity had said sure my client
killed those children but he's not a murderer he's a
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hero look at what he's achieved all over
America tens of millions of parents are
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grateful that their children are alive and well because my
client never got his hands on them all over America parents
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are going to be much more vigilant where their sons go when
they leave the house because they've read about John Wayne
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Gacy well we wouldn't take that line
of reasoning seriously in court for a
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moment it's ridiculous why should
we take it more seriously when
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word-for-word somebody says the same
thing about God that God would torture
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and kill an innocent child so other
people would grow and benefit that God
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does not hold every human soul to be
uniquely precious if a human being were
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to do that it would be a sin if a human
being were to use a person as a means to
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an end if you were to get involved with
a member of the opposite sex without
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taking him or her seriously just to stir
own ego if you were to make friends with
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somebody not because you liked them but because you wanted
to use him you wanted to sell him something take advantage of
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his friendship that would be blessed theming against
the divine image in every human how could God do such a
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thing how could God torture one person
so that other people would grow as a
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result I have never been impressed
with the argument that God causes some
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children to be born so the woman
next door will feel grateful that
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her kids are normal that God strikes
one man blind so we can feel virtuous
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dropping a quarter in his cup I'm not
moved by that you know that sounds like
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to me that sounds like the story that Sammy Levinson used
to tell remember Samy Levinson used tell the story when he
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started first grade his mother came
and said to the first-grade teacher if my
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boy Sammy ever misbehaves hit the
kid next to him he learns by example
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we heard all the conventional answers
the explanations the justifications that
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tried to make sense of our tragedy and none of them made us
feel any better and one day I realized why you know why it's
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really very simple they weren't supposed
to comfort us they weren't supposed to
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make us feel better they were intended
to defend and justify God to say to
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hurting people you have nothing to
complain about you have no right to cry
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out what's happening to you is right and good and it makes
sense God knows just what he's doing and I'm sorry I would
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like to think if we could ask God that
God would say forget about me forget
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about my reputation really I can take care
of myself you bring healing and comfort to my
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bleeding children on earth but nobody
who sat with us was that wise I went
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through a very serious crisis when we found out what our son's
life would be like I found myself asking can I continue as
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a religiously affirming person or is
everything I have spent my life teaching
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a lie I asked myself can I continue as
a rabbi watching other people's children
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grow up and knowing that my son would
never grow up and what helped me through
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my crisis was going back to the
Bible and rereading the book of Job the
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classical biblical discussion of the
good man who suffers it was a book I
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thought I knew I had studied it in rabbinic seminary I
had written papers on job I had taught job but now I was
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reading job not as a Bible student I was
reading it as job as the man who raised
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his hand to heaven and said why why
me why my children and I found things in
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the book I've never found before you remember the story
don't you job is this totally righteous completely innocent
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man whose world falls apart his
wealth is destroyed his children are
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killed he comes down with this terrible sickness three friends
come and they try and comfort him and make him feel better
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they say to job cheer up job nobody ever suffered
unless there was a good reason for it and job
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says strange thing I don't find that a
cheering thought I thought it useful to
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diagram the philosophical argument
38 chapters of brilliant philosophical
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poetry in the book of Job in the following way there
are three ideas which everyone in the book wants to
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believe first God
is in charge God is
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all-powerful nothing happens in this world unless God
wants it to happen that's number one - God is good he is
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kind and fair and just he gives us
what we deserve or better than what we
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deserve he gives us the benefit of the doubt
and a second chance and three job is a good
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person got that straight one God is
all-powerful - God is good three job is
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a good man as long as job is healthy
wealthy and respected you can believe
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all three of those with no conflict no problem right when
job starts to suffer when he gets sick when his children die
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you can no longer affirm all three of
those simultaneously you can affirm any
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to figure it out all combinations work
you can affirm any to only by denying
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the third and the drama in joke the
argument in the biblical book of Job is
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over which of those three are you
prepared to give up so that you can
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affirm the other two job's friends the
three who came to comfort him have no
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problem it is so important for them to
affirm what they were taught in Sunday
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school God is good and God is powerful
the only possible conclusion is to deny
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proposition number three that job is a good man and
so they say the job come off at stop complaining
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God doesn't make mistakes people
make mistakes we've read Sigmund Freud
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we know how human beings repress things
that are ashamed of you must have done
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something really terrible in your past
and you hid it from us and you hid it
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from yourself but you couldn't fool God
and he has come to chastise you and to
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force you to confront your sin stop acting so self-righteous
stop feeling sorry for yourself get down on your
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knees and beg God to forgive you and then he will stop
teaching you a lesson and they call that comfort you know what
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they're doing they are playing the game that we today
have learned to call blaming the victim making sense of
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life's tragedies by saying to the person
who is suffering you must have done
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something to deserve this otherwise why
would God make it happen to you hurting
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the person a second time because now he not only has to
suffer the original crime scene misfortune he has to suffer
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our condemning and judging him as well
a woman is attacked and assaulted on the
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street and instead of saying to her what
a horrible defiling experience that must
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have been we say to her why were
you walking alone at night why were you
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dressed so provocatively you must have
done something terrible to provoke this
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kind of attack and that's why it happened to you and
not to us because there is nothing that goes on in the
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world that we don't deserve I tell the story in my book of
the young woman whose husband walks out on her and she's
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crushed and rejected and she goes
home to her parents and all her mother can
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think of to say to her is what did you
do wrong did you nag him too much did
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you spend too much of his money what did you do to force
him to do this to you the survivors of the Nazi Holocaust
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instead of saying to them you have
endured the most horrible nightmare that
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any human being has ever experienced
instead of that we say you know maybe if
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the Jews of Germany happened so conspicuous you would
not have become Hitler's targets blaming the victim
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because we can't let ourselves admit
that good people suffer in this world
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when we find a person suffering we
say well I guess he's really not good I
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quote this horrible proverb in my book I forgotten where
I read it now that goes if you see a blind man kick
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him why should you be kinder than
God that is if you see a person who's
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suffering and you believe in God you must believe that
there's a good reason for his suffering whose side are you
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going to be on job can't accept that
answer he is not prepared to purchase
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the world's innocence the world's integrity at the cost
of his own maybe he's not perfect but really is he so
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much more a sinner than the people across the street their
children are alive is he so much more terrible than a man
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next door he still got his business flourishing why is
this happening to him job's answer is to deny proposition
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number two that God is good I'm innocent
says job and God is great God is so
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great that he is not limited by
considerations of justice and fairness
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because that would be a limitation on
God's power to say that God can't do
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something to us because we don't deserve
it is to limit God's power job would say
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if we buy our righteousness could compel
God to give us what we want if we could
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come to church on Sunday or to synagogue
on Friday night and say now look here
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God I have been honest I have been faithful I have been
religious I have been generous you owe me a week of good
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health and seeing my money market
funds go up and God had to do it because we
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turned it is he still God or have we
reduced God to a kind of cosmic vending
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machine you put in your tokens you pull the lever and if
you don't get what you ask for you're entitled to kick and
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curse the machine and take your business
elsewhere job would say God is so great he doesn't
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have to be fair he can't be limited so
in the book he is always saying things
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like would that there were an umpire
between us to make God play fair would
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that somebody could force God to come
down and justify himself explain himself
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but nobody can make God do anything
he can do whatever he wants he is so great
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that he is not obliged to be kind
or fair or anything good answer
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I think it's a terrible answer I don't
like that answer to say that God is not
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committed to justice and mercy as you
and I understand those words great who
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wrote all those words in Scripture
justice justice shall you pursue do
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justly in love mercy and walk humbly with your God deal
kindly with a widow the orphan the stranger if God doesn't
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stand for those things more importantly
if God is not committed to justice and
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compassion who teaches us to be
righteously indignant when we read about
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injustice being done who teaches us to
reach out in compassion to people who
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are suffering if this has nothing to
do with God my traditional friends my
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Orthodox Jewish friends my fundamentalist Christian
friends if I still have any they're always saying to
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me Kushner if something happens if God does something
which you can't understand maybe the problem is not with
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God maybe it's with you maybe the
problem is you can't understand it can't
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God do things too wondrous for you to
comprehend and I say well of course God
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can that's not the issue that's not what I'm talking about
yes God can do things I can't understand my plumber does
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things I can't understand my 17
year old daughter does things I
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can't understand sure God can do things I can't understand
that's not what we're talking about the question I'm raising
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is not that God does things to wonderous for me a child
falls into a swimming pool and drowns what's to understand
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we understand it all too well a young
husband and father is killed by a drunk
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driver what is it that is too wondrous
for us to understand we understand it
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perfectly clearly the issue is will God
do things which he himself has said are
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wrong I locate myself in the Honourable
Jewish tradition which says it is
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legitimate to call God to account in
the name of his own standards of justice
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from Abraham in the Bible who says to
God at Sodom and Gomorrah how can a God
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of justice do things which are unjust you can't destroy that
city if there are innocent people living there - Jo - Rev
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Livie it's Huck of Berdichev who says God if you don't
treat your people Israel better than this we're gonna stop
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worshipping you and go see what kind
of world you live then my answer and I
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think it may be the answer of the author of the book of Job
I'm not totally sure but I find this answer there whether he
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put it there or not my answer is the one alternative that
nobody else has taken if job's friends solve the riddle by
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denying proposition number three job is not a
good person if job himself solves it by denying
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proposition number two God is great but he's not just and
I don't like either of those answers my answer is to deny
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proposition number one and to say maybe
God isn't all-powerful maybe he is very
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great but not totally in control I
confess it is an answer I was very
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reluctant to come to like all of you I
was raised to believe that everything
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that happens is God's will and if we don't understand
that it's our limitation like all of you I would
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rather believe that somebody is driving the
bus but if I see innocent people suffering
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and to understand it I have to choose
between a powerful God who is not kind
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and just or else a kind and just God who
is not powerful you tell me which is the
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more religious alternative which
is a greater religious value to be so
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powerful you can disobey the law and
take things which don't belong to you is
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that our image of the divine or to
be so totally committed to justice and
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kindness even if you can't always make it
happen I was speaking one night at a synagogue
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in New Jersey and a young woman asked me the first question
she said rabbi Kushner you're describing a God who is
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smaller than the God I was raised to believe in I don't know
if I can worship a diminished God I said there okay let's
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talk about it am I really diminishing God do we
make God greater when every time a child dies
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of leukemia we say God wanted that to
happen do we enhance God's greatness if
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we hold him responsible for every heart
attack every malignant tumor every plane
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crash every flood every fire every tornado every hurricane
every automobile accident if we keep saying this is the
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will of God that those people should
suffer what kind of God would want those
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things to happen I got a letter from
a Lutheran minister in a small town in
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Nebraska who told me the following story
he had to do a funeral one day for a 26
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year old man who was scheduled to be
married in his church the same weekend
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the man had gone out with a few friends for a bachelor
party leaving the restaurant they were run into by a drunk
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driver and killed the same day the same
church almost the same hour for which
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his wedding had been scheduled they
did the funeral buried him in the church
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courtyard came back to his office and the
man's fiancee is waiting for him there says to
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him pastor if one more
person tells me it was God's will
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I'm gonna scream why are they teaching
me to hate God because I think that's
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what we do when we attribute every undeserved
tragedy every disaster to God's will
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we teach people either to hate themselves for deserving
it or to hate God for doing it to them when they
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didn't deserve it but if God doesn't
cause these things if he doesn't want
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them to happen and can't prevent them where do they come
from what could possibly make them happen if they're not
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the will of God a couple of
possibilities sometimes I believe bad
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things happen to good people because
laws of nature can't tell the difference
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between a good person and a bad one a
falling rock has no way of knowing whom
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it's falling on and whether he deserves
to be hit by the rock or not you cross a
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busy highway at peak traffic time and you run the risk
of being hit and injured by a car even if you're a good
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person whose family loves you and even if you have the best
reason in the world for having across that road in a hurry
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you go into a house where there's a
contagious disease and you run the risk
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of contracting that disease irrespective
of why you're there you can be a doctor
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you can be a burglar germs
don't know the difference thin ice
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speeding bullets falling rocks out-of-control automobiles
they don't know the difference either this by the
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way is my argument with the insurance companies what they
call acts of God I think is taking the Lord's name in vain
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a flood is not an act of God a forest
fire is not an act of God it's an act of
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nature blind a moral nature churning its
way through the world and not knowing
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whose home is getting in its way but the
community that pulls together to rebuild
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itself after the flood after the
fire that I believe is the act of God I
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believe God created this world I have to believe that I mean
look at the world it is so complex so intricate it works and
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it is so beautiful you can sit and look
at the mountains for an hour and you
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feel tranquil and a television
program that cost three million dollars to
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produce you get bored with after five minutes no this has
to be God's world but I believe that when God created the
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world he withheld from the natural world
one of his divine blessings that he only
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shared with you and me and that is the ability to know
the difference between good and bad human beings have that
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capacity falling rocks speeding
bullets disease germs don't have it and
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sometimes good people suffer in this
world because laws of nature don't make
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any exception for the fact that they're
good sometimes I believe bad things
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happen to people who deserve better because it's very
important for me to affirm God created us free to choose how
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we want to live and if we choose to be
good honest helpful people we get the
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credit if we choose to be bad dishonest
destructive deceitful people we not God
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get the blame a man goes into a late-night convenience
store to hold up the store shoots the clerk don't ask why
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would God do this to an innocent child put the blame where
it belongs not on God on the robber in my book I quote a
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German Christian theologian a Lutheran
woman named Dorothy Zola writing about
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the Holocaust asking the question that
every one of us has asked where was God
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at Auschwitz her answer you want to
know what she says her answer is where was
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God God was at the side of the victims
grieving and hurting and dying with them
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not on the side of the murderers
Dorothy solace says to suggest by word
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or implication that what the Nazis did to
innocent men women and children was
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in any way God's will that he wanted it
to happen as part of some master plan
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is to offer us a
God so cruel that no
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decent person should ever worship Him
and I agree with Gareth Isola for me the
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Holocaust is not a theological question where was God
for me it's a psychological question how could people
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have done such things to each other
how could human beings have so grossly
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misused the freedom to choose which
God gave us but I don't want you to go away
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tonight thinking that I believe in a God
who is an innocent bystander a God who
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created the world and gave it a push and then retired and
from time to time looks down from heaven shakes his head and
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said what a pity I hoped it would turn out better no I
believe in a god I believe in a God who actively intervenes
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in the lives of people who are suffering he does not send
the pain the problem the tragedy he sends us the ability to
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transcend and survive it what does
God do for us first of all I suspect he's
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given us a world where natural laws
apply regularly and constantly I don't
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understand why one person gets
cancer and another person doesn't I don't
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understand why one person comes
down with Alzheimer's disease and another
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doesn't but I suspect that somewhere and the laws of biology
there are answers to that and when we care enough to spend as
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much money on medical research as we spend on cigarettes
and cosmetics to make us sick we will start finding the
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answers when we start paying medical
researchers what we pay quarterbacks and
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left fielders in the United States we
will find the answers some of you who
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are here tonight
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some of you in the audience who are my
age will understand and remember why my
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mother wouldn't let me go swimming in
Brooklyn in June when I was 16 years old
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do you remember we were afraid of
polio every summer there would be a polio
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epidemic and you had to watch over your children to make
sure they didn't get chilled god forbid they could be
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crippled or worse what happened we cared
enough to give our dimes and our dollars
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and somebody found out what causes polio and how you prevent
it and our mothers don't have to worry about their children
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being crippled by polio in the summer as they don't have to
worry about being disfigured by smallpox or laid low with
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yellow fever or a long list of ailments
which used to wipe out whole communities
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which used to cause people to raise their hands to heaven
and say God why are you doing this to us but instead of
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asking God why we applied our god-given
intelligence to the problem and we
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reduced the amount of undeserved
suffering that goes on in this world
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what does God do for people who have been hurt by life and
who deserve better I think sometimes the best line in my
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book is a line I didn't write I quote a
19th century Hasidic rabbi who said
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human beings are God's language do you
understand what he meant by that human
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beings are God's language you are
hurting you cry out to God how did you
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expect God to answer did you think he would send you a
letter from heaven written in Latin English or Hebrew
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depending on your religious preference
God answers our cry by coming to us in
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the incarnation of caring people doctors
and nurses who work through the night to
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help us really did you ever think about
that that a person with a expensive car
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and a six-figure income will get up at 2:00 in the morning
and come sit with us because we are in pain God comes to us
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in the incarnation of friends and neighbors who
overcome their natural squeamishness to sit with
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us to know that we're not alone I love the story of the little
boy whose mother sends him on an errand and it takes him
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a long time to come home when he finally gets back his mother
says hey where were you I was worried about you and the boy
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says oh there's this kid down the street whose tricycle broke
and he was crying because he couldn't fix it so I stopped
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to help him mother says wait a minute don't tell me you
know how to fix a tricycle the boy says no of course not i
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sat down and I helped him cry
and you know he's right he's right that
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is what helps would you think back for a moment to the last
time you were really down the last time you were feeling
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lousy rejection frustration bereavement
sickness whatever it was that had you
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00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:11,056
feeling bad what got you out of that
bad feeling your theology or your friends I
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00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:18,056
would bet it was your friends people
who sat with you and helped you cry so that
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you wouldn't have
to cry alone for the
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next five minutes I want to stop being philosophical and
become very practical and if you forget or if you reject
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everything else I say tonight and only
remember the next five minutes it will
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have been worth my coming to Charlotte
should you know anybody who's going
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through a hard time and you're not sure
whether you ought to intrude because you
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don't know what to say that will help her because maybe
she wants her privacy at a time like this because you only
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make her feel worse you're happily married and she's
divorced or widowed your kids are on the honor roll and your
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friends children are in trouble with the police you've got
a good job and your friend has been laid off if you're not
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sure if you ought to do something please
listen to this you must reach out and
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show that person that you care that you're thinking about
her stop in and talk call send a card ask what you can
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do please don't wait for your friend to
pawn his dignity and ask you for help
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you reach out first it's so important you
know why when something bad happens
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to us there's a crazy little corner of
our brain that says to us aha you did
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something wrong and now you're being punished for it and
now that your punishment is public and everybody sees
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what you're going through they will know what a sinner you
are and they will reject you too when we stay away because
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we don't know what to say we understand it's our own
limitation that's keeping us from our friends side
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but our friend doesn't know that he thinks we're
rejecting him the woman who has been widowed or
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divorced her friends are uncomfortable
around her because she represents a
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threat a potentiality so scary they
can't handle it they know it's their own
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weakness that keeps them away but she doesn't know that she
feels she's been rejected by her husband rejected by God
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and now she's been rejected by her friends too that's why
it's so important we reach out and show that we care you
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don't know what to say I'll give you a quick course
in what to say to a friend who's going through a
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hard time if you want to take notes so you'll
remember this you can write it down listening
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say I'm sorry and then keep your mouth shut
and hold somebody's hand and listen you
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will help more by listening than by
trying to explain the most important
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thing I have learned is that when a
person says why me why my family that's
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not a question it's not a question it sounds like a question
it is a cry of aim and you help the person who says why
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is this happening to me not by answering
his question but by easing his pain you
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know that you just didn't realize you know it your best
friend says to you what did I ever do to deserve this does
359
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he want you to give him a list
of things he did to deserve this
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people going through a hard time don't
want explanation they want consolation
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they don't want theology they want
reassurance they don't want to be told
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that there's a good reason why this is happening to them
they want to be told that you care about them that there's no
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good reason that they don't deserve it that you can't
understand it you know what you do with suffering with tragedy
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you don't explain it you don't justify
it you survive it that is the only thing
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you do with it tell you how I became
so smart when I was a young naive
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inexperienced rabbi I would go to a home
where there had been a tragedy I would
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walk in and people would say to me rabbi why would God let
this happen to such a good person and I thought they were
368
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asking me a question about God and it's fine because I know
about that I've taken courses in it so I would give them
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a 15-minute summary of my senior course
in theology from rabbinic seminary when
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I finished and their eyes had glazed over
I would say to them no I know this is a
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little bit technical maybe you didn't understand it the
first time would you like them to repeat it and they would
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say rabbi please we've suffered enough
I've learned I don't do that anymore I
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have overcome my natural inclination
to give long complicated theological
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answers I've learned to keep my mouth shut and hug people
and hold their hands and sit with them and not try to make
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sense of it and not try to explain it but simply be there
and say I'm sorry for you you don't deserve going through
376
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:19,976
this you're too nice a person human beings are God's
language let me tell you one story it may be my most
377
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:24,288
favourite story of all it's true our
son Aaron played the violin and
378
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:29,224
because he was so small because
the progeria kept him the size of a
379
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:37,296
three-year-old even when he was a teenager he had to play
this tiny little almost toy sized fiddle got a very tinny
380
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:43,976
scratchy sound out of it one day the bridge on his violin
broke do you know what that is it's that black piece of
381
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:49,976
wood that holds the strings up and all of Boston we
could not find a replacement bridge for it so we had to
382
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:55,976
wait to the next time we were in New York went into the
biggest best known musical supply store in all of New York
383
00:40:56,000 --> 00:41:02,976
City to see if they had a replacement bridge they did while
they're putting it on the daughter of the owner of the
384
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:09,272
company comes out sees this strange-looking child
with his tiny little violin introduces herself we
385
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:16,976
introduced her to Aaron he plays a little bit for her she
is so moved by this physically handicapped child trying
386
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:21,928
to lead a normal life but a week later
we get a letter from her asking if we'd
387
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:27,672
be willing to accept as a gift the
violin which had been hand made for her
388
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:33,928
as a four-year-old prodigy in Germany
so Aaron could get a better tone when he
389
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:38,416
practiced human beings are God's
language people who would sit with us
390
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:42,904
and help us cry so we would
know we were not left to cry alone
391
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:50,976
and one more thing that God does for us when we're hurting
it maybe the most important of all I have to introduce
392
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:55,864
this with a story which she may have
trouble believing it was June 1981 and I
393
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:01,976
announced to my family that my goal for
the summer of 1981 was to get into shape
394
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:08,976
to run the Falmouth Road race this is a mini marathon a
seven mile race that takes place in Cape Cod every August
395
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:14,976
it's a big deal everybody in Falmouth is involved in it
everybody else has to choose between participating in the race
396
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:19,864
or watching it I'm lucky the way I run I
get to do both to encourage me in my
397
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:30,976
efforts to get into shape to run seven miles my daughter
bought me a t-shirt which I still have and I still wear when
398
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:35,608
I work out and on the back of this
t-shirt she had imprinted Isaiah 40:31
399
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:43,056
that's what it says on my t-shirt Isaiah
40:31 if you check your Bibles you will
400
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:51,976
see that the verse in question reads those who trust the
Lord will have their strength renewed they shall run and not
401
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,944
grow weary didn't work
that is to say it didn't
402
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:07,976
helping the summer I ran Falmouth it's helped me a lot
ever since I guess that verse that verse has become the
403
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:14,976
cornerstone of my biblical faith that when we run out of
strength when we have used up all our strength and all our
404
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:19,976
hope and all our patients we turn to God
in trust and he gives us more so we can
405
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:24,928
continue people are constantly asking
me if I believe in miracles I say yes of
406
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:31,976
course I absolutely do believe in miracles but I believe
in big miracles not small ones small miracles you know
407
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:38,976
splitting the Red Sea making the Sun stand still no I'm
sorry those those are not miracles those are special effects
408
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:43,928
you don't have to be God to split the
Red Sea sessile be the mill does it just
409
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:49,992
as well Steven Spielberg does it better
you know it's a real miracle when timid
410
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:58,928
people become brave and when weak people
become strong and when selfish people
411
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:05,976
become generous that's a miracle says we'll be the mill
can't make that happen you have to be God to make that happen
412
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:10,480
when people suddenly come up with
qualities of soul that they know they
413
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:16,120
did not have last week or the day before
yesterday and today they have them where
414
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:21,544
do they get those qualities from you
know why I can believe in God after
415
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:27,976
everything that's happened in my family and in the
families of other people I care about I believe in God
416
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:33,976
not because of the cosmological proof of the ontological
proof or the the argument from design or the first cause
417
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:39,976
you know all those things we learned about in philosophy
one they're really very important for passing philosophy
418
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:44,544
wanted for nothing else in life I
believe in God because I am constantly
419
00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:50,992
seeing ordinary people do extraordinary
things and if you think about it you're
420
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:57,608
constantly saying it - if a plane
crashes in Washington and hits the 14th
421
00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:05,784
Street bridge that's not God's will that's just physics
but that Lenny Skutnik should be walking by at that
422
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:10,976
moment and for the first time in his life
this very ordinary bureaucrat does something
423
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:16,976
heroic and without knowing what he's doing he finds himself
in the Potomac saving the stewardess that's an act of
424
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:24,616
God that's God intervening to give us a quality of strength
we never had before I think of the family in my congregation
425
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:30,864
who eleven years ago gave birth to a
brain-damaged child and every day for 11
426
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:38,976
years they get the child up they dress him because he's
never learned to dress himself and they feed him breakfast
427
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:44,976
because he can't feed himself and they sing to him and they
play with him and they look for a school where he can be
428
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:51,848
with other children I look at these people and I say
what's going on here I thought I knew these people very
429
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:57,120
ordinary average people not particularly
religious not particularly spiritual not
430
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:02,160
terribly well-educated it is
inconceivable to me that 11 years ago
431
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:07,608
they had an endless supply of patience
and love and strength I don't know
432
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:13,736
anybody who has that it must be that
when you have been as brave as you can
433
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:22,168
be for as long as you can and you've used up all your
courage and all your love and all your strength you turn to
434
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:27,864
God and he gives you more so you can
continue I think of people who never got
435
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:34,976
along that well with their parents and their parents become
old and sick and have cancer and the children have to
436
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:40,976
drive them to radiation therapy and take them home and help
them up the stairs and help them go to the bathroom and
437
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:47,976
cook for them and all of a sudden these people develop a
capacity not just to feel obliged but authentically to love
438
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:52,976
their parents and to sacrifice for them
without feeling like martyrs where does
439
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:58,056
somebody suddenly come up with qualities
of soul they did not have before unless
440
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:03,864
that verse on my t-shirt is really true
when you trust in God you can turn to
441
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:10,976
him when you've run out of strength then he renews your
strength so you can run and not grow weary so you can walk and
442
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:16,976
not feel faint but you know I could tell you stories like
that all night long and I would not have answered the question
443
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:23,976
that most of you brought here tonight why do good people
have to suffer in God's world I'll tell you something I
444
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:28,976
don't have an answer for it I don't know why they have to
suffer and if I did I wouldn't tell you because telling you I
445
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:34,976
would be like jobs comforters I would be like all the people
who sat with my wife and me when they found out Aaron was
446
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:40,976
sick and tried to persuade us that it really made sense
there was a good answer for it it doesn't make sense and
447
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:46,976
there is no good answer for it it's rotten and painful
and unfair and you shouldn't accept it if my answer we
448
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:51,800
mean explanation I don't have an answer
but you know the word answer doesn't
449
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:57,056
only mean explanation an answer can also
be a response not why did it happen but
450
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:05,552
what are we going to do now that it has happened I could have
called my book why bad things happen to good people but I
451
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:11,976
called it when because I don't want to talk about why I want
to talk about what you do when you find yourself in sorrow
452
00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:17,120
people come to me and they say rabbi why
why me why my mother and I say to them I
453
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:25,976
understand how you feel I've been there and I've asked
that question too but please understand why is the wrong
454
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:31,120
question because why focuses on the past
and the longer you focus on the past the
455
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:38,912
more helpless you feel no matter how smart you are no
matter how pious you are you can't change the past it's
456
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:47,104
already happened so turn around and don't look only at
the past look at the future and instead of asking why ask
457
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:52,864
what am I going to do now how do I
find the strength and the grace to go on I
458
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:58,800
got through my crisis by reading the
biblical book of Job and one other book
459
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:03,928
Archibald MacLeish is play JB is modern
telling of the job story for the first
460
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:11,976
two-thirds of the play Archibald MacLeish tells the
Bible story in modern dress his hero his job figure is a
461
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:16,800
modern affluence somewhat complacent
businessmen whose world falls apart one
462
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:23,976
day his children are killed his business is destroyed he gets
sick three friends come to try and console him and McLeish
463
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:31,488
is so wonderful with what he does with the three friends one
is a Marxist one is a psychiatrist and one is a clergyman
464
00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:38,976
they all try to make sense of job suffering and none of
them makes Jo feel any better till now McLeish is just
465
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:44,976
repeating the Bible story when he comes to the end he changes
the ending do you remember how the story ends in the Bible
466
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:49,672
remember at chapter 42 of Job God
appears and God says to job it's time to
467
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:55,976
let you in on the secret this was all an
experiment I wanted to see if you would
468
00:49:56,000 --> 00:50:03,424
get upset if I killed your children I wanted to see if you
would question your faith if you suffered job I'm proud of
469
00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:10,976
you you passed the test here's your reward twice as much
health twice as much wealth twice as many children you
470
00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:15,976
see you're better off than you were before
MacLeish like me and I suspect like many
471
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,672
of you doesn't like that ending what
does it say about God about a God who
472
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:25,608
would kill innocent children as part
of a sadistic experiment on his most
473
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:32,976
faithful follower and then thinks you make it up to him
by giving him more children so he changes the ending and
474
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:37,416
instead of God rewarding job job
forgives God job forgives God for not
475
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:48,864
making a perfect world for putting us
down in an unfair world where no matter
476
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:54,928
how good how innocent how pious you
are illness and accident and human cruelty
477
00:50:55,000 --> 00:50:59,736
happened to you as much as they
happen to anybody else job goes back to his
478
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:06,976
wife and they're going to go on living together it is their
love for each other not God's generosity which will make new
479
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:11,672
children happen life has hurt them
so badly life has taken away everything
480
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:18,928
they held precious and their response
is to say yes and we want more of it now
481
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:24,800
that we have seen how painful and
unfair life can be we want to go on living
482
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:33,976
job's wife says to him on the next to last page of the
play you looked for justice didn't you well there is no
483
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:38,928
justice there is only loved and then
she has these wonderful closing lines the
484
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:43,968
candles and churches are out
the stars have gone out in the sky
485
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:50,824
blow on the coal of the heart and we'll see
by-and-by great do you understand what she means
486
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:57,976
by that she's saying to job don't look for answers why we
had to suffer like this why our children had to die don't
487
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:03,056
look for answers why not in theology
and not in science the candles and churches
488
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:09,976
are out the stars have gone out in the sky the only place
to look for an answer and it won't be an explanation and
489
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:16,976
answer why it'll be a response and answer what are we
going to do about it now the only place to look is in your
490
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:21,864
own heart blow on the coal of the
heart it would be nice if we could count on
491
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:29,608
the world to keep us warm and safe
I wish it were that kind of a world my
492
00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:35,976
life my job would be a lot easier and
so would yours but it's not that kind of a
493
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:42,976
world and the sooner we realize that the better we'll be
able to cope with it blow on the call of the heart don't ask
494
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:47,928
the world to keep you warm you shed
your warmth on the world have you suffered
495
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:52,864
have you known tragedy in your life
take the white heat of your pain and your
496
00:52:55,000 --> 00:53:00,120
anger and turn them into something which
will send light and warmth into somebody
497
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:05,992
else's life the widow whose husband
has died of cancer I would understand it if
498
00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:12,864
she stayed home and mope all day never
put on makeup never put on a dress but
499
00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:20,976
she doesn't she goes out and becomes neighborhood collection
chairman for cancer research the family whose story I
500
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:26,976
tell in my book whose son is run over by the school bus
coming home from school one day I would have no argument with
501
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:33,976
them if for the rest of their lives they were bitter and
jealous of other people because every time they buy a pack of
502
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:41,488
gum and give it out and they have one stick of gum left over
they're reminded of a child who was killed but they don't
503
00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:46,976
do that they go out and they work for a
higher school bus safety standards so no
504
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:53,976
other family will have to suffer what they've suffered
this is blowing on the call of the heart even if the only
505
00:53:54,000 --> 00:53:59,056
difference your own sorrow has made to
you is that now you know what the soul of
506
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:04,864
the grieving person feels like so you
will reach out and not hold back so you
507
00:54:06,000 --> 00:54:13,168
will say the right things enough or wrong things this is
blowing on the call of the heart you know for 3000 years
508
00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:18,736
we've been asking the question why
do good people suffer in God's world and
509
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:24,608
nobody's been able to answer it not
rabbi Akiba and not st. Augustine and
510
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:30,976
not Maimonides and certainly not harold
kushner we haven't been able to answer it
511
00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:35,800
because it's the wrong question why
is not the question the question is what
512
00:54:36,000 --> 00:54:43,360
are you going to do about it how will you respond the
question perhaps becomes this are you capable of forgiving the
513
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:49,056
world for being an unfair unpredictable
place and loving it and wanting to go on
514
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:55,544
living in it anyway no matter what
happens to you because god help us it
515
00:54:56,000 --> 00:55:00,800
may be the only world we have are
you capable of forgiving people who didn't
516
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:08,976
know what you needed or couldn't give it to you because you
know that's what love is love is not admiring somebody for
517
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:13,672
being perfect love is accepting
somebody with all of his imperfections and
518
00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:19,376
praying that he accepts you with all of
yours and finally the hardest question that I
519
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:27,056
have to ask you tonight and the hardest
question for you to hear can you forgive
520
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:33,800
God can you forgive God for choosing
not to create a perfect world where the
521
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:43,232
right thing would always happen and we would be safe can
you get over your disappointment in him because God loves
522
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:48,800
goodness more than he loves perfection
and instead of creating a predictable
523
00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:55,976
world where the right thing had to happen he created an
unpredictable world where the right thing will only happen
524
00:55:56,000 --> 00:56:00,992
if you and I make it happen so that as
the Talmud says when a man chooses to do
525
00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:07,800
something right God looks down from
heaven and says for this moment alone it
526
00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:13,800
was creating the world but in the
meantime all sorts of terrible things have
527
00:56:14,000 --> 00:56:18,864
happened to good people along the
way if you can do that if you're capable of
528
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:27,296
that kind of forgiveness and that kind of love will you
recognize your own capacity to forgive and to love will you
529
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:32,864
recognize your own ability to survive
to transcend and to reach out to others
530
00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:37,928
will you recognize them as the divine
gifts that God has given you so that you
531
00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:44,056
can go on living meaningfully no matter
what the world deals you can you do that
532
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:49,096
blow on the coal of the heart and
we'll see bye and bye thank you
533
00:57:23,000 --> 00:57:24,000
you
69659
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