2008 Woodie Awards
Tsunamis and God
Shaya Lerner
Issue date: 2/15/05 Section: Opinion
It was the worst of times. The thirty-foot high concrete walls of water came crashing down onto the coasts of a dozen countries, killing upwards of 200,000 people and injuring and displacing millions more. The death and destruction wasn't caused by the terror of man, but rather the terror of nature, which was on display that day in all its terrible ferocity.
It is a phenomenon difficult to comprehend. We generally understand killing as an act committed by one man against another. Whether it be via a weapon, vehicle, or sheer physical force, killing requires a humanly generated act. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters do not conform to this principle; these deadly acts are committed by nature against humans. They destroy and kill anything in their path, and can only be halted by nature itself.
Since the Great Flood of Noah, religious figures have tried to rationalize natural disasters as God's way of punishing humanity for its sins. Seemingly, they fail to comprehend any other plausible reason for the disaster, and thus have resorted to evangelizing God's wrath. So it shouldn't have been surprising when Israeli Sefaradi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar was quoted saying that those killed in the Far East were punished for not keeping the Seven Noahite laws. This statement was then followed by an even more absurd claim made by Amar's predecessor, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. In a weekly pamphlet distributed to thousands of synagogues throughout Israel, Eliyahu quoted a passage from the Talmud that states that God punishes the nations of the world for not aiding Israel. In what area have the dozen or so nations in South-East Asia denied Israel aid? The Disengagement Plan of course! Apparently, Eliyahu believes that the hundreds of thousands of people killed in the Tsunami were guilty of not aiding settlers in their resistance against the Israeli government's Disengagement Plan. Elementary, Watson.
How then, assuming the absurdity of Amar's and Eliyahu's claims, are we supposed to understand natural destruction? In Deuteronomy 30:16 it states: "See, I placed before you today Life and Good, and Death and Evil." Man has an option of taking the evil path of life. He may steal, cheat, and even kill another man. This verse allows us to understand the concept of an unnatural killing, a murder if you will, and contributes to the idea of man's imperfection. Yet, if we are to recognize God's flawlessness, and thus accept the premise that He only kills when necessary, are we then to believe that all those killed in the Tsunami were evil and deserving of death?
It is a phenomenon difficult to comprehend. We generally understand killing as an act committed by one man against another. Whether it be via a weapon, vehicle, or sheer physical force, killing requires a humanly generated act. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters do not conform to this principle; these deadly acts are committed by nature against humans. They destroy and kill anything in their path, and can only be halted by nature itself.
Since the Great Flood of Noah, religious figures have tried to rationalize natural disasters as God's way of punishing humanity for its sins. Seemingly, they fail to comprehend any other plausible reason for the disaster, and thus have resorted to evangelizing God's wrath. So it shouldn't have been surprising when Israeli Sefaradi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar was quoted saying that those killed in the Far East were punished for not keeping the Seven Noahite laws. This statement was then followed by an even more absurd claim made by Amar's predecessor, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. In a weekly pamphlet distributed to thousands of synagogues throughout Israel, Eliyahu quoted a passage from the Talmud that states that God punishes the nations of the world for not aiding Israel. In what area have the dozen or so nations in South-East Asia denied Israel aid? The Disengagement Plan of course! Apparently, Eliyahu believes that the hundreds of thousands of people killed in the Tsunami were guilty of not aiding settlers in their resistance against the Israeli government's Disengagement Plan. Elementary, Watson.
How then, assuming the absurdity of Amar's and Eliyahu's claims, are we supposed to understand natural destruction? In Deuteronomy 30:16 it states: "See, I placed before you today Life and Good, and Death and Evil." Man has an option of taking the evil path of life. He may steal, cheat, and even kill another man. This verse allows us to understand the concept of an unnatural killing, a murder if you will, and contributes to the idea of man's imperfection. Yet, if we are to recognize God's flawlessness, and thus accept the premise that He only kills when necessary, are we then to believe that all those killed in the Tsunami were evil and deserving of death?