Responses to Suffering in Classical Rabbinic Literature

Rating:
Summary: History of Thought, But What Does It Mean?
Review: David Kraemer takes a historical approach to classical rabbinic responses to the problem of suffering (i.e., if God is omniscient, omnipotent and just, why do the good suffer?), reviewing their development through time, and comparing pre-rabbinic thinking in the Bible and in other sources. He approaches the classical rabbinic works as historical literary documents bound up in the social contexts of their times. Among other things, this means that he attempts to understand statements in a 5th Century document (for example) within the 5th Century historical setting, even though particular statements in that document may be attributed to rabbis of other centuries.

Kraemer provides a clear and careful reading of the texts he has chosen to review, from the Bible through the Mishnah, the Halakhic and Aggadic Midrashim and the two Talmuds. Somewhat oddly, to my mind, he does not discuss Lamentations in his review of Biblical literature on suffering, even though responses to the destruction of the Temple are a significant source of the rabbinic literature on suffering that he discusses. (For an excellent discussion of Lamentations and subsequent literature on it, see Tod Linafelt's "Surviving Lamentations.") Kraemer covers a lot of ground, however, and succeeds in tracing a broadening out of the allowable responses to suffering recognized in rabbinic literature. Where I felt the book fell short was in drawing any conclusions beyond this very general historical trend. For example, Kraemer demonstrates that the Bavli allows for a rejection of suffering and a questioning of God's judgment, but says nothing about what this might mean for the rabbis' theology or for their own legislative and judicial projects.

If you are simply looking for a review of the classical rabbinic literature on the subject of suffering, this is a superb book, readily accessible to non-scholars and highly recommended.