By Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel
CHULA VISTA, California — Whenever a pandemic occurs, people will inevitably ask the question: Why do such viruses occur? Why does God allow such harmful things to happen? The answers will vary based upon a person’s religious tradition. No one faith tradition can speak for the whole religion. Religious diversity demands we take the context and parish story of each religious denomination seriously, if we are to understand where someone else is coming from.
Many Christians I have encountered believe that all traces of evil, disease and suffering would not exist in our world were it not for the Fall of Adam and Eve. By rebelling against the goodness and benevolence of God, our primal parents created an inner imbalance that continues to affect the world in countless unhealthy ways. Their act of disobedience led to the chaos we identify with the human condition. God made a perfect world but our own inner corruption tainted human nature; consequently, our relationship with creation suffered. The existence of viruses and other disorders of the body and soul would not exist were it not for Adam’s sin. As a result of the “Fall,” human history must learn to live in a world that includes the sorrow and drama of illness and suffering. The cure for the Christian is to personally accept Christ as his/her savior, for he alone accepted all the suffering of humankind. Of course, the decision to believe comes with making a momentous choice. By choosing to believe in Jesus, Christians sincerely believe that they are destined for heaven.
In Jewish tradition, we generally do not think about being “saved” through our belief system. Judaism tends to focus on the here and now. Our actions and behavior determines our spiritual growth—in this world and in the world beyond. In terms of our faith, Jewish tradition rejects the whole concept of “Original Sin.” Simply put, Adam’s Fall did not directly affect his posterity at all, nor did the behavior of Adam and Eve spiritually transmit a disease to the human race. The primal parents’ sins affected only themselves. Every child born into the world is as Adam was at Creation: entirely innocent; each human being is born with the freedom to choose his or her own path in life.[1] These ideas was also expressed by the Celtic critic of Augustine, a man named Pelagius. This scholar spent many years in Palestine, and his thinking reflects the scholars he interacted with from the Jewish community.
Sin is carried on only by imitation, committed by the will, denounced by reason, manifested by the law, punished by justice. . . . If sin is natural, it is not voluntary; if it is voluntary, it is not inborn. These two definitions are as mutually contrary as are necessity and free will. Adam was created mortal and would have died whether he sinned or not sinned; the sin of Adam injured only him, not the human race; the law leads to the kingdom of Heaven, just as the gospel does; even before the coming of Christ there were men without sin; newborn infants are in the same state which Adam was before his transgression; the whole human race does not die with the death and transgression of Adam, nor does it rise again through the resurrection of Christ. . . .[2]
For Pelagius, it is morally wrong to convict the entire human race because of one man’s sin. But what about illness? Jewish ethics has long taught that illness is a part of the creative order. One of my favorite illustrations for this actually comes from the Christian Bible. In what is arguably one of the most important teachings found anywhere in ancient Jewish wisdom. The story goes like this: Jesus once saw a man who had been blind since birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And he replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”[3]
This passage actually suggests Jesus did not believe in “Original Sin;” that concept reflects Paul’s attitude. Unfortunately, trying to determine what Jesus actually said, and differentiating this from what people think he said is a matter of confusion for laypeople and scholars alike. Robert Funk’s historical approach to deciphering what Jesus said is instructive. Here is what he said concerning the man who was blind from birth:
The words ascribed to Jesus in these extended dialogues are what the narrator imagines Jesus to have said on such occasions. The initial question raised by his disciples (v. 2) is based on a common assumption: all misfortune was deserved, since the calamity was the result of sin. In the case of a congenital disability, such as blindness from birth, there arose the question of whether the victim had caused it or if-perhaps because such a sin was hard to attribute to an unborn baby-the blame lay with the victim’s parents. It is not difficult to imagine Jesus addressing such a question as this, since his answer here would have cut against the social grain. Nevertheless, the actual words in this exchange are the words of the evangelist and not those of Jesus.[4]
The story in my opinion categorically rejects the idea of a pre-natal sin, a view that is especially common among the Hindus who believe the soul is tainted with the karma of a previous lifetime. From the Judaic perspective, it is an impossibility that blindness could be a punishment to an innocent child coming into the world. However, there is one significant text suggesting some of the rabbis did believe in the existence of pre-natal sin. [5]
· And Antoninus said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: From when does the evil inclination dominate a person? Is it from the moment of the formation of the embryo or from the moment of emergence from the womb? Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: It is from the moment of the formation of the embryo. Antoninus said to him: If so, the evil inclination would cause the fetus to kick his mother’s innards and emerge from the womb. Rather, the evil inclination dominates a person from the moment of emergence from the womb. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: Antoninus taught me this matter, and there is a verse that supports him, as it is stated: “Sin crouches at the entrance” (Gen. 4:7), Antoninus implied that sin awaited human life at the door of the womb, as soon as a child was born. But the argument does show us that the idea of pre-natal sin was known. Steinsaltz Talmud Commentary on BT Sanhedrin 81b).
Contrary to R Judah, as Pelagius remarked above, every child born is as innocent as Adam was on the day he was created.
But how do we account for the congenital blindness of an innocent child? The answer is vital for how religious people ought to understand the purpose of the coronavirus pandemic, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” I often think of Hellen Keller, a woman who was stricken by an illness at age 2 and was left blind and deaf. Beginning in 1887, Anne Sullivan tirelessly dedicated her life to helping Helen communicate. Helen went on to graduate in 1904 and accomplished many amazing things.
At first, she was a difficult child and refused to cooperate with Sullivan’s instructions. But Sullivan noticed that she was not making the connection between the objects and the letters spelled out in her hand. Sullivan kept working at it, forcing Keller to go through the regimen.
Then one day, Sullivan taught her how to say the word, “water,” and she helped her make the connection between the object and the letters by taking Keller out to the water pump, and placing Keller’s hand under the spout. While Sullivan moved the lever to flush cool water over Keller’s hand, she spelled out the word w-a-t-e-r on Keller’s other hand. Keller understood and repeated the word in Sullivan’s hand. She then pounded the ground, demanding to know its “letter name.” Sullivan followed her, spelling out the word into her hand. Keller moved to other objects with Sullivan in tow. By nightfall, she had learned 30 words.
When a pandemic occurs, we need to realize it is one of life’s challenges for us to help manifest God’s compassion through our earthly attempts to solve the disease. When we will conquer it, rest assured the knowledge we will have learned will help us in combattng other diseases.
Blaming people for the disease is not only wrongheaded—it is also very cruel. What the world needs right now is compassion—and not hypercritical people who think they know the mind of God.
As Helen Keller said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
NOTES
[1] Like Pelagius before him, Immanuel Kant attacked the old Augustinian and Protestant view of Adam’s fall from grace, and said that the belief that sinfulness is passed on to a person’s posterity was nothing more than a superstition.
[2] Translated by Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1 The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1971), 315. Cf. Anti-Pelagian Writings 11:23 published in Vol. V of the Early Church Fathers Nicene–Post/Nicene Part I (New York: T. & T. Clark, 1887).
[3] NT John, 9:1–12,
[4] Robert Funk and Roy Hoover, The Jesus Seminar: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1993), pp. 432-433
[5] However, some rabbinical texts suggest that it might exist in a pre-natal form. Some of them had the strange notion of pre-natal sin. The Talmud mentions a conversation presumably between Rabbi Judah the Patriarch (ca. 135-217 C.E.), the famous redactor and editor of the Mishnah and Emperor Antoninus Pius (who ruled Rome from 138-161 C.E.). Some think Antoninus might have been the famous Stoic and Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus who ruled Rome from 161 to 180 C.E. If he conversed with Antoninus Pius, the R. Judah must have conversed with him while he was a young man. However, chronologically speaking, it stands to reason the Talmud was probably referring to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus instead.
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Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista. His previous articles may be accessed by clicking his byline at the top of the page. He may be contacted via michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com