Those all-knowing “experts  who claim to have deciphered exactly why Sandy exacted such a steep price don’t really know a thing. Decades ago the Chazon Ish taught that only prophets can divine the significance of world events. So instead of pointing fingers at countries leaders or policies maybe we should consider a bit of personal introspection

One population that has always raised my hackles is those know-it-alls who hasten to pronounce judgment whenever calamity strikes as if they know exactly why it happened and for what sin we are being punished. Even as the victims of Hurricane Sandy’s violence stand bewildered amid the wreckage struggling to put their lives back on track the self-appointed judges are sitting at their computers typing their blog posts on why New York was hit by the storm. I have no desire to repeat the claims of these all-knowing mortals who apparently must have been privy to some intelligence leaks from the beis din shel maalah -- or perhaps they participated in the deliberations up there before the sentence was pronounced?

These pundits have no authority or credentials to be passing judgment on such matters. There is no one alive who can know exactly why anything happens. It’s interesting that this population’s critiques always seem to focus on their pet agendas. One says it’s all about tzniyus. Another says it’s all because of failure to bring desecrated Jewish remains to proper Jewish burial. A third claims it’s a retribution forNew York’s Mayor Bloomberg siding with the opponents of metzitzah b’peh or the legalization of deviant marriages.

But unfortunately for them these all-knowing learned folk don’t really know a thing. The Chazon Ish whose 59th yahrzteit falls this month taught us that only a prophet can explain the significance of world events. And with all due respect these honored commentators are not prophets nor or they the sons of prophets as far as your humble servant knows. So instead of paying attention to their “explanations ” it would behoove us to do what we are all required to do when faced with such terrible events: some personal introspection. What do I myself need to correct especially in view of the fact that this time so many of our Jewish brethren were caught in the eye of the storm and suffered damages? It isn’t our job to ferret out the guilt of those who were killed or harmed but to learn a lesson for ourselves.

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We can trust the words of the Gemara (Yevamos 63) that says “Rabi Elazar ben Avina said ‘Calamity comes to the world only because of the Jewish people as is said “I have cut off nations; their towers have become desolate. I have destroyed their streets ” and it is written “Surely you will fear Me you will accept rebuke”(Tzefaniah 3:6-7).’”  This is the proper approach: contemplate events and take mussar from them; don’t go looking for other people’s sins.

The following story illustrates how a Torah giant like the Chafetz Chaim viewed world events in order to glean the utmost spiritual import.

A Jew who was living in Chinacame to Europeon business. After his business was done he decided to go to Radin to visit the Chafetz Chaim before embarking on his homeward journey to that faraway land. The Chafetz Chaim asked him how the Jews in Chinawere faring and the visitor told him that things were in a bad state; Jewish life was hanging by a tenuous thread. The Chafetz Chaim sighed and said that the situation was similar in other far-flung places around the world where the number of Jews was small and Torah observance was being neglected. He gave his visitor a copy of sefer Nidchei Yisrael which he had written especially for Jews who’d been carried away by Divine Providence to such far-off localities.

Then the Chafetz Chaim asked his visitor what was going on inChinain general among the non-Jews. The visitor didn’t quite know what aspect of Chinese life to talk about so the Chafetz Chaim asked what was the last thing he had seen reported in the newspapers inChina? The visitor recalled a story about the construction of a dam to stop the flow of a certain river. Tens of thousands of people had moved into agricultural settlements on the newly-dry land. But then tragedy struck: the dam burst and with sudden force the mighty river’s waters flooded the new settlements. Tens of thousands of Chinese people paid with their lives.

Hearing this the Chafetz Chaim began to cry. “So the midas hadin has reached all the way to there?” he said.

The visitor astounded asked “When I told the Rav about the miserable state of Yiddishkeit inChina he sighed and gave me a book and now when I tell him a natural disaster that killed tens of thousands of Chinese people he cries?”

The Chafetz Chaim answered him “Have you ever been inWarsaw?”

The visitor nodded. Yes he had.

“How many non-Jews live there in the Polish capital?”

The businessman named a figure of about a million.

“And how many Jews?”

“About 300000.”

The Chafetz Chaim then asked him “If you were to go there and stand on a soapbox in a main square and start giving a mussar shmuess in Yiddish who would gather around to listen?”

“The Jews of course.”

“But they’re the minority” the Chafetz Chaim pointed out.

“Yes” said the businessman “but the Poles don’t understand Yiddish!”

“I will explain the nimshal of the soapbox speech to you” said the Chafetz Chaim. “A flood is a speech in Shamayim-language. Who understands it? Only the Jews. And the Hand of Heaven guided you here to Radin to tell me about the flood in China in order to alert me to pay attention like the Gemara says in Yevamos. And that is why I’m so disturbed.”

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This is how a gadol viewed a calamity on the other side of the world. He didn’t try to decipher any Heavenly calculations; he looked only for a personal lesson. Of course every Jew knows that things don’t happen at random. Hurricane Sandy doesn’t have a mind of her own; she doesn’t get up one day and decide to wreak havoc. She’s only carrying out Heaven’s will.

The Torah is not the only account of the Great Flood. A number of ancient tablets have been discovered that recount the event from the perspective of various cultures. But the Torah’s account is the only one that goes beyond the physical conditions that brought destruction to the world and reveals the spiritual cause: “Because the evil of man has multiplied.” This is the Torah’s message: not the account of the event itself but what we are to learn from it.

The New York Times the Washington Post CNN and the other news outlets may have all provided sound accounts of the path of destruction left by Hurricane Sandy. But we have another language — the language of the Torah the language of the Chafetz Chaim. Do we understand it?

* * * 

I must admit though that this subject inspires a troubling question. I’ll ask it as it was presented to me at a lecture I gave some years ago to a group of secular Israelis. As I recall it was after Hurricane Katrina brought disastrous flooding toNew Orleans causing tremendous loss of life and property. Somebody or other was proclaiming that the catastrophe had come as a punishment for the American government’s support of the Palestinians or some such explanation contrary to Chazal’s statement in the Gemara and the response of the Chafetz Chaim who linked the disaster inChinadirectly to himself. Instead they were looking to point a finger at others.

Someone in my audience had heard these claims and raised this question: “Tell me rabbi. If President Bush sinned why should those poor people in New Orleanssuffer for it — people who may not ever have heard of the Mideastconflict in their lives?” That’s the question I was asked and I’ll rephrase it with added intensity: if all the calamities suffered by the peoples of the world — floods earthquakes etc. — are only meant to wake us up if tens of thousands of innocent Chinese peasants have to die just to alert the Chafetz Chaim to do teshuvah where is the justice in that? As Avraham Avinu asked “Will the Judge of all the earth not do justice?”

A pertinent question. And the answer is also pertinent: Yes the Judge of all the earth does do justice!

With Hashem’s help we’ll discuss the answer in depth next week.

Food for Thought

In everything bad there is good

In every judgment there is kindness

(Rebbe Dov Ber of Mezritch)