Dan Stewart

October 28, 2004

TH 300-7

Summary of Rabbi Harold Kushner’s When Bad Things Happen to Good People

When Rabbi Harold Kushner was younger, he spoke with families who were suffering, and he thought that he was comforting them with all the conventional answers of why they had to suffer.  He told them things like “God is giving you this because you are so strong, and your reaction to this tragedy will inspire others.”  It was not until Kushner himself went through a time a suffering that he realized that these words were not comforting.  Kushner began to think about why bad things happen to good people.  The conventional answers like “God never sends a burden we can’t bear” did not satisfy him and only seemed to defend God.  Sometimes, these conventional answers even lead to more suffering.  People start to think that they did something wrong to make God so angry that he caused a tragedy.  Kushner says that this thinking is not rational because God did not cause the tragedy.  Kushner points out that God does not cause rocks to fall on people.  It is simply the laws of nature that tell that rock to fall.

            After his son died, Kushner read the Book of Job, which tells the story of a man suffering man and his relationship with God.  Being a rabbi, he had read the story before, but this time he read it as though he were Job himself.  This allowed him to think about the story in different ways, and he came up with some good ideas.  Kushner realized that there are three statements about the story, of which one must be false for the others to be true.  The first is that God is all-powerful.  The second is that God is good, and the third is that Job is a good man.  In the story, Job’s friends seem to suggest to Job that the third statement is wrong, and Job must have done something wrong to deserve all of this suffering.  This caused Job to suffer even more.  Now he had to suffer about being a bad person, along with his original suffering.  In the story, Job thinks that the second statement is wrong, and God is not all good.  Job blames God for his suffering, and he thinks that he deserves a reward from God for putting up with all of the suffering.  Kushner has a problem with this view, though, and he asks, “Who teaches us to be good, if our Creator is not good?” 

Instead, Kushner suggests that the first statement, that God is all-powerful and in charge, is false.  Kushner says that God gave us free will and he does not cause terrible tragedies to happen.  Rather, Kushner says that tragedies follow natural law.  When a bullet is fired at someone, the bullet will go into his or her body.  God will not stop the bullet in mid-air to save a life.  God probably could do this, but instead He allows us to make our own choices, and He allows them to be played out.  The problem is, according to Kushner, how people abuse the free will that God gives us.

            At the end of the Book of Job, God tells Job that it was all a kind of test, and he rewards Job for passing.  Kushner suggests that there is a better ending for the story.  He thinks the story should end with Job forgiving God for making a world with suffering.  Job would forgive God for allowing people to do the wrong things and hurt each other.  Job would understand that God allows bad things to happen because He gave us a world with free will. 

Some people might suggest that miracles contradict this idea, but Kushner still believes in miracles.  It’s just that his idea of a miracle is not what most people think of.  For instance, Kushner would not consider it a miracle for the rain to stop and the clouds to part just before you needed to go outside. His idea of a miracle is when people come up with qualities of soul that they didn’t have before so that they can help others.  He gives the example of a girl giving her special violin to Kushner’s son Aaron so that he could get a better sound than he got with his violin.  Kushner uses the Bible passage of Isaiah 40, 31 to explain the idea that when you trust in God, you can turn to Him when you run out of strength and He will give you more so that you can continue to help others.

            Kushner wrote a book called When Bad Things Happen to Good People, which became a huge success because it raises the question of why bad things happen to good people, a question that all people eventually face, and because the conventional answers to that question do not satisfy people.  Kushner says himself that the book does not explain why bad things happen to good people.  Rather, it deals with the reaction to bad things happening.  Kushner says that “why” focuses on the past and makes people feel helpless, but to talk about “when” deals with the future and how people respond to tragedy.  It causes you to say, “Ok, they are dead.  Now what do I do.” 

            Kushner gives us advice for when we know anyone going through a tough time, and we are not sure whether or not to intrude.  He advises us to reach out to them before they have to ask us for help.  We should go sit with them before they have to call and ask to talk to us about it.  When we avoid talking to them about it, they start to think that we might be rejecting them, and they feel like they have done something wrong.  Therefore, avoiding our friends when they are suffering only makes them suffer more.  We should reach out to them and listen to them.  We should not try to give them the conventional answers like, “God is giving this to you because you are so strong.”  Instead, we should say, “I am sorry.”  Then, just sit and listen so they can vent.  Kushner says that we should not use explanation, but rather consolation.