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Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Jewish Thought (6/12) Previous Document: Question 12.22: What is the Jewish position on communicating with the dead? Next Document: Question 12.24: Why are there different names for G-d? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
Answer:
J udaism teaches that G-d chose the Jews for certain roles and
responsibilities within a cosmic plan. While G-d loves and is
responsive to pleas from his "chosen people", G-d's actions conform to
this timeless scheme for the world. Inevitably, some human suffering
will occur and must be accepted for the sake of others or the
community as a whole or in congruence with G-d's eternal plan. The
parable of Moses on Mount Nebo illustrates another salient feature of
the Judaic view of suffering. After leading the Jewish people through
forty years in the desert wilderness, Moses, the receiver of the Ten
Commandments and the "servant of G-d", ascends the mountain and looks
across the Jordan river to Canaan. The covenant G-d had made with
Moses was for him to live to see the promised land, but he was neither
to enter nor witness his people entering Israel. Now, having attained
that goal, Moses bargains with the Angel of Death, imploring God to
allow him to observe his people entering the promised land, if only as
a bird flying high above or as a blade of grass on atop Mount Nebo.
G-d declines, gently at first, later with fury. The covenant must be
maintained. G-d demands that Moses' corpse be brought to him! The
parable ends as the Angel of Death approaches the heavenly throne
carrying the dead body of Moses and observes that G-d is weeping. (
From The Nature of Suffering and the Nature of Opportunity at the End
of Life Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 237-252,
May 1996. Ira R. Byock, M.D. )
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Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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