08 Oct WHY DOES GENOCIDE HAPPEN?
Genocide, the targeted
killing of a people, is
not a modern invention.
Many have tried to kill
the Jews, the biblical
Haman being perhaps
the most famous ancient
example. Other nations
have also faced genocide, some even
suffering from extinction. We live in a time of
great hypocrisy, when people who explicitly
intend to destroy all the Jews falsely claim
that they are victims of genocide. Putting
that aside, we can ask: Why does genocide
happen?
I. Genocide and Sin
Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim 1:54) explains
many tragedies as resulting from divine
punishment of sin:
“G-d’s actions towards mankind also
include great calamities, which overtake
certain individuals and destroy them, or some
universal event annihilating whole tribes and
even entire regions, destroying generation
after generation, and sparing nothing
whatsoever. Hence there occur inundations,
earthquakes, destructive storms, military
expeditions of one nation against another
for the sake of destroying it with the sword
and blotting out its memory, and many other
evils of the same kind…. G-d performs acts
similar to those which, when performed
by us, originate in certain dispositions, in
jealousy, desire for retaliation, revenge, or
anger: [when G-d performs them,] they are
in accordance with the guilt of those who are
to be punished…”
Rambam says that Hashem uses natural
disasters, such as earthquakes and terrible
storms, as instruments of punishment for
sins. The suffering and death that these
events cause are punishment for individual or
communal sin. This does not mean that every
specific individual deserves his suffering or
death. Rather, that the community deserves
it in total and each individual is punished as
a member of this community. Even righteous
people die as part of an unrighteous
community. Rambam includes genocide
in his list of divine punishments, “military
expeditions of one nation against another for
the sake of destroying it with the sword and
blotting out its memory.”
Understandably, this is difficult to read.
We will shortly soften and revise this
explanation. But first we should note that
blaming the victim does not exonerate the
perpetrator. Rambam (Mishneh Torah,
Hilchos Teshuvah 6:3) asks why the
Egyptians were punished for enslaving the
Jews when Hashem had decreed the slavery
(Gen. 15:13). People are punished for their
bad choices, whether individually or as a
group. They are not punished for actions they
are forced to undertake when those actions
are decreed by Hashem. Rambam explains
that the decree did not specify who would
enslave the Jews. Each Egyptian made his
own to choice to do bad. In other words,
the justification of the evil (in this case,
enslavement decreed by Hashem) does not
exonerate the perpetrators. Even Ramban
(Gen. 15:4) who disagrees regarding the
Egyptians because there was a prophecy
about the enslavement would not disagree in
general. Even when the victim bears some
blame, the perpetrator is not justified in his
actions and suffers punishment for his own
guilt.
From what we have seen so far, Rambam
seems to say that every victim of a genocide
or a natural disaster is suffering punishment
for his sins. Everyone sins. We see in the
Torah that the punishment for sin includes
terrible suffering (e.g. Lev. 26, Deut. 28).
Sometimes Hashem punishes us in this
world and sometimes in the next. War and
disaster are tools of Hashem’s punishment
in this world, freeing their victims from
punishment in the next. That is what Rambam
seems to be saying from a quick read of the
passage above. However, elsewhere he says
something else which forces us to read more
closely.
II. Genocide and Nature
Later in Moreh Nevuchim (1:72), Rambam
writes:
“The same force that originates all things,
and causes them to exist for a certain
time, namely, the combination of the
elements which are moved and penetrated
by the forces of the heavenly spheres,
that same cause becomes throughout
the world a source of calamities, such as
torrents, harmful rains, snowstorms, hail,
tempestuous winds, thunder, lightning,
and the putrefaction of the air, or other
terrible catastrophes by which a place or
many places or an entire country may be
laid waste, such as landslips, earthquakes,
hurricanes and floods issuing forth from
the seas and from the depths.”
Here Rambam says that natural disasters
are, quite literally, natural. They are not
tools of divine punishment but merely
the ways of the world. People who suffer
and die due to natural disasters are not
necessarily guilty of any sin. They are
just human beings living in a dangerous
world. Are natural disasters punishments
or merely nature at work? While Rambam
does not include genocide in this list
because it is not natural, the answer to the
contradiction about natural disasters may
apply to genocide, as well.
Perhaps we can explain based on a later
discussion of earthquakes. The Talmud
Yerushalmi (Berachos 9:2) attributes
earthquakes to a variety of spiritual
causes. R. Nehorai says they happen
because people fail to separate terumos
and ma’asros, the portions of produce that
must be given to Kohanim and Levi’im. R.
Acha says that they are due to homosexual
activity. Other rabbis say that they are due
to machlokes, disunity. Another view is
that earthquakes come when Hashem sees
theaters and circuses operating peacefully
while the Temple in Jerusalem lies in ruins.
Rav Shmuel Yaffe Ashkenazi (16th cen.,
Turkey; Yefeh Mareh, Berachos 9:14) asks
how we can understand this in light of
scientific explanations of earthquakes. We
know that earthquakes are natural events.
How can they also be instruments of divine
punishment? Additionally, according to
R. Nehorai, why are there earthquakes in
times when there is no biblical obligation to
separate terumos and ma’aseros?
III. Hashem and Nature
Rav Ashkenazi distinguishes between
nature and divine intervention. Hashem
created the world and designed the course
of nature. Within this creation, earthquakes
will happen for natural reasons. However,
Hashem also intervenes in nature to reward
and punish people. Some earthquakes
are natural while others are the result of
divine intervention. This can also explain
the apparent contradiction within Moreh
Nevuchim. Rambam never says that natural
disasters and genocide are only tools of
divine punishment. Perhaps generally they
are part of nature, due to the ways of the
world and choices made by other people.
And sometimes, Hashem causes unnatural
disasters in order to punish people in this
world.
If so, how do we interpret the events we see
in the world and sometimes we experience
ourselves? If a tragedy can be a punishment
or a natural occurrence, what do we gain
from this explanation? The assumption
underlying these questions is that knowledge
must be useful in order to be valuable. Maybe
the value in this explanation is a somewhat
greater understanding of the workings of
the world. At the very least, we should see
tragedy as a prompt for introspection and
evaluation. What are people doing wrong
that might have caused the tragedy? Without
assigning blame, we look for meaning in
the suffering, for improvements we can
implement in the wake of tragedy, for an
opening to reach out to Hashem. At the same
time, we also note what we did wrong on the
natural level and how we can prepare better
to avoid disasters that occur naturally.
If genocidal attacks may be a divine
punishment or a natural event caused by
evil choices, we must prepare for both. We
must improve our religious stations to free
us from divine punishment. We must also
enhance our military defenses and take
actions that will prevent such attacks in the
future. Rambam’s double message teaches
us that we must operate on two levels — the
natural and the supernatural. In that way, we
improve our places in both this world and
the next.