Shmuley, Genocide, and Challenging God

This week is the premier of Good Shabbos Nebraska, our new program at Beth Israel.  Where we dump the pulpit and learn Torah together as a congregation.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our first guest is America's Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

In preparation for Shmuley's visit I bought a copy of his new book The Fed-Up Man of Faith: Challenging God in the Face of Tragedy and Suffering.  (The book is on sale for only $10 on his website)

Shmuley addresses the age old question of Why do Bad things happen to Good people?

***Spoiler alert***

Shmuley challenges those who say that God has His reasons and we just have to trust him.  He should not accept that those who are suffering must have done something to deserve that suffering.  Rather,

"do as Job.  Assert your righteousness, hold God accountable, challenge fate, and demand that suffering finally end."

Shmuley is certainly doing his part to end tragedy and suffering in the world.  Just yesterday he held a massive event in New York City with billionaire philanthropists Sheldon Adelson and Michael Steinhart, featuring Elie Weisel and Rwanda President Paul Kagame.  The purpose of the event was to inspire a call to action against the tragedies going on right now in Syria.

Shmuley could not be coming for a more appropriate episode of Good Shabbos Nebraska.  This week, Jews around the world are reading the section of the Torah that talks about Noach and the flood that destroyed the world.  The flood was the first global genocide and it was brought about by God.

Join us as we learn the parshah together and hear from Shmuley what he thinks about this sort of Divine Justice and how the Torah relates to current events.

Good Shabbos Nebraska is every Shabbos morning at 10 am.  Only at Beth Israel Synagogue.  Where every shabbos is a shabbaton!