When Bad Things Happen to Good People

There is no answer to the question, “Why do the innocent suffer?” at the level of thought. The only adequate answer is at the level of deed, in the long journey toward a world in which the innocent no longer suffer. To be sure, there is acceptance in Judaism. We call this tzidduk hadin, coming to terms with suffering and loss, saying that “all that

That, and because Jesus also invites us to active sympathy for those who become the casualties of the planet’s propulsive and indifferent force – those who suffer. Not in order to find an answer to the problem of suffering, but to respond to those who do the suffering. Maybe there never ever was any love behind the universe.

When Rabbi Hiyya dismisses Rabbi Yochanan’s question so abruptly, he seems to awaken Yochanan to the futility of theology in the face of suffering. What does seem to work in such circumstances? Empathy, the human touch, the presence of another: