Think as a Noahite About
Natural Calamities
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Rabbi Z. Aviner
Noahidesevencommandments.com
How should Noahites relate to natural calamities?
The world is full of catastrophes, sickness, pains –
How should we relate to them?
Let’s start with a story told by Pearl Buck in her book “The Good Earth.”
A Chinese farmer tills the ground, plough and seeds it and works
very hard through the season. To secure his crop he places
a wooden statue on the fence of the field. He and his wife offer
the deity food and clothes, from the best and most expensive
materials they had. As it turned out, a bad drought stroke the area
and the crop failed. The farmer then threw the deity to the trash.
Next year he would replace it with a new one, hoping for a better result.
Behind the story is the belief that the world is full of bad spirits,
such as demons and genies, whose purpose is to cause troubles and pains.
The deity is just a stronger power who can chase them away.
But to save you, you need to bribe it. The deity, like peoples,
seeks power and glory and would be pleased to help you
if you’ve honored it enough. And the relationship is simple:
– if it does help you, you keep it on your fence.
If not, you may displace it with disgrace and look for a better one.
That simple relationship grew in history through several stagers till,
about the First Century BC, where most peoples in the Roman Empire
adapted the belief of the east that the world is controlled by
a Bad Deity who is responsible for the catastrophes seen in nature,
as well as in our personal life. The scenes of death, of war, of sickness
are caused by this Bad deity.
Opposing it, there is a Good deity, a rival of the Bad one,
Which can overcome the Bad one, but unfortunately,
it Is currently arrested by the Bad One. The world is
under a cosmic battle between Good and Bad, although one day
the Good one would prevail. The Bad Deity is sometime called Satan,
or Demon, and it is a self-standing powerful entity.
Nature, therefore, is a battle ground between those cosmic power.
Right now Nature exhibits only the fingertips of the Bad deity.
Moses, 3500 years ago, introduced a revolution against that concept.
To him, Nature is not captured by the Bad deity, but rather a scene of JUSTICE.
Moses opens the Book of Genesis by saying –
At the Beginning, ELHM created the Heavens and earth.
Where the term ELKM stands for the All – Mighty Judge.
Hence, according to Moses, the World is created by a JUDGE,
To stand JUDGMENT. A JUDGE operates by LAWS, which
In this case are the NATURAL LAWS. The JUDGE’S moral code
Is the TRUTH and the ABSOLUTE JUSTICE.
You see that playing out in Genesis Chapter One.
ELKM, the JUDGE, passes a judgment on every Day,
Usually at the end of the Day. If the verdict is “good”
ELKM would allow the Day to survive. If the verdict is not good,
ELKM would terminate it to nothingness. The Laws by which
He judges are the Laws of Nature. That description fits well
The history of our planet.
And the JUDG’ES MORAL CODE” is also seen in Nature.
Under the rule of ELKM, animals are allowed to kill and eat
Other animals only because they too will be eaten in due course.
ELKM operates by exercising measure for measure, in precise way.
He would eliminate creatures with no MERCY,
without offering a second chance.
The point is that this powerful ALL-MIGHTY JUDGE
is not evil but JUST. All though the world under Him is
full of pains and suffering, JUSTICE is never EVIL.
Hence, there is no Satan out there in Nature, and not Bad deity
That has captured it. What we see out there is a play of Natural Laws
That knows no MERCY. A Supernova that explodes or a Black Hole
that can swallow millions of stars and turn them to singularity
are not the work of Satan but rather the Fingers of ELKM.
So how should we relate catastrophes?
Here is what the RAMBM writes: He rejects Aristoteles’ philosophy
that the world is run at random, by chance.
ELKM – the Attribute of Judgment, Din, runs it through His Natural Laws.
It is true that a leaf would not fall without the word of ELKM,
but that “word” is a Natural Law.
Hence, the RMBM concludes, all events in Nature all the catastrophes,
Are the work of Natural Laws. We can PREVENT them once
we’ve discovered those Laws
For instance – if we don’t stand by the window against a blowing wind,
We would not catch a cold.
Similarly, we can prevent all bad things once we’ve discovered
How they happen.
The RMBM went on to introduce Preventive Medicine.
The way to prevent a sickness is not to offer sacrifices
to the demons or to the gods but rather to study
the law of Nature set up by the LUDGE ELKM.
Had we invested a fraction of the fortune we invest on Military
into Scientific research, we would have already eliminated
much of the sickness in the world.
So when a catastrophe strikes, don’t ask where is God to prevent it.
Or why didn’t God prevent it. The catastrophe is a part of living
In ELKM’s world, unnder His Laws oof Nature.
The Halachic consequence of the words of the RMBM is that
When we go out of the cemetery having lost our deer one, we recite
The following blessing: “Blessed is the Truthful JUDGE,”
Having in mind the All Mighty ELKM the JUDGE.
Again – no evil force, no Satan, no power besides the rule
and the Law of the All Mighty JUDGE ELKM.
THE INFINITE
EeLoHiM —-1—-2—-3—-4—-5—-6—–YH/VH Sabbath
Adam
But Moses adds another aspect of his revolutionary insight.
This time he adds an insight into our heart.
It is true that a mother, holding her dying child, should say
by her lips – “blessed is the Truthful JUDGE.”
But in her heart, there wage a storm of pains and rejection.
The mother would argue in her heart – how could You, G-d,
not save this child of mine?
In other words – why didn’t you have Mercy on him?
Why didn’t you have Mercy on him despite your true Judgment?
What Moses is saying that the mother’s second voice
is the result of a special spectacles that only we, humans, wear
when we look at Nature.
And those are the spectacles provided to us by another Attribute
of the Infinite, called the Attribute of Mercy and Compassion,
her name YHVH.
Of all the creatures in Nature, we alone can see through
That spectacle, since we alone were made by both ELKM and YHVH.
Thus, the scene of cruel life struggle can be fascinating to us,
showing the clear Hands of ELKM,
Yet at the same time it arises in us a sense of rejection, of wondering
whether the would have been be built better, with no JUDGMENT
and no sinners and no death or calamities.
Would it be better if we have had no sorrow and no pains?
Wouldn’t it be better had we lived in a world full of only
Joy, Love, Compassion?
Hence, this world needs Tikun, correction.
Let’s analyze it deeper
In YHVH’s eyes, as She is Observes our world, there is no evil here.
Death and sorrow and calamities are a part of ELKM’s Justice.
And Justice is never Evil.
The creatures of this world, who are engaged in the never stopped
struggle for life, who kill or are killed, for them too there is no other
way but measure for measure. Had they developed enough brain
they would accept ELKM’s reality as it is, since they are unaware oof YHVH.
They were created only by ELKM and not by YHVH.
Hence in YHVH eyes, the creatures of the world are not evil.
They abide by ELKM’s law without discretion. T
The only Evil entity She can see in our world is the
Evilness of mankind, acting heartlessly, with cruelty,
towards each other and towards the animals as well.
Man, with his Free Will, can chose YHVH ways instead of
Surrendering to the laws of the Jungle.
The Only demon in YHVHG eyes is Man , who knows better,
who can feel Her values in his heart t and yet have decided
to act otherwise.
Thus Moses’ revolution has two aspects
1 Nature is a theater where you can see ELKM wok playing out
- The world is not ruled by a Satan or a Demon or by a Bad Evil Deity.
It is ruled by ELKM Laws of Nature.
3 A calamity is not the play of evil forces or random forces but rather
The Natural forces operating under ELKM’s Command.
4 we humans perceive the world ALSO through the spectacle of
The Merciful YHVH, the Attribute oof MERCY. It is painful experience
And quite bewildering, but we are born ESPECIALLY to withstand
That challenge and understand that ELKM and YHVH are NOT
Two deities fighting each other, but rather two attributes oof One
Infinite Nameless CREATOR.
That CREATOR sometimes decides
to sit and create on the Throne of Justice,
and sometimes decides to move and ascends on the Throne of Mercy.
5 Though, at the time of a catastrophe
we bless and recognize ELKM the Truthful JUDGE,
we also hope that a Day will come and YHVH will prevail
so that the Death would be eliminated altogether.