I've developed a new philosophy
I only dread one day at a time
- Charley Brown

Sometimes when we hear some of the horrific things that happened after an attack, we begin to ask some very serious questions. It’s not just the fact that Jews were killed. We can perhaps look to some answers for that, perhaps they deserved it, perhaps they completed their time on earth or any other reason and either we’ll be satisfied or we won’t. Another aspect of it is the way that they died, the amount of suffering that they had before they actually died. In some cases the amount of suffering that they had that they continued to have on this earth and we ask why it’s these people suffering. Is it really important for them to have suffered? Let them just die quickly, if it was necessary for them to die.

And here perhaps we find an important difference between the way people look at things that they have made into as a G-d looks at his own creation, at his own òí ðáçø.

When a person creates something he likes to also create together with it the right PR. He wants to make sure that everybody sees it in a positive light as if it is something good, protect it from people who want to say negative things about it and if they do say something negative immediately comes to its defense. He might try all kinds of methods to block negative publicity about his creation and thus the PR itself might be as important or even more important than the creation itself.

Not so when we deal with another concept another way of looking at things from a divine point of view.

From Hashem’s point of view the concept of PR doesn’t exist. This is not something you can just say a major difference between the way G-d looks at things and the way people look at things.

G-d doesn’t need PR so not only do we read in the òùøä äøåâé îìëåú of the fact that these great Torah scholars were killed but we read about some of the horrific ways in which they actually died and that is part of the tradition that we keep with us. When it is asked can we make it easier for them, that they are tortured less, we read âæøä òìé ìôðé. In other words no, the actual torture is part of the need, part of the requirement of the death. It’s not just that they finished their time on earth but these great people must be tortured, must be hurt, and that’s the way I see the need for it in the world. That’s part of the necessity.

And here we’re talking about people who are major Jewish personalities, major great people. Again, it is necessary for them to suffer in the way they died.

We can’t understand why they are suffering. When we read about the suffering that they have and the fact that it’s an essential part and no it cannot be made lighter, then we see that we are dealing with a very different realm entirely and that the PR element is gone. Once the PR element is gone then the suffering is indeed a necessary element. Then we go and look in our own situation and we say yes, people are suffering. It’s not that it’s a shame that they’re suffering or too bad that they’re suffering. We say just as those great Torah scholars did have to suffer, that was part of the requirement because it is being seen from a very different point of view, so too we have to look at things so too when it happens in our day we can understand the need for suffering the element of suffering is a requirement and that’s part of the way it is necessary for them to die.

Perhaps we can accept it more when we realize that this is also âæøä òìé and Hashem wants both the death in this case or requires it both the death and the suffering are part of the requirement, also for these people as it is was for the òùøä äøåâé îìëåú.

But doesn’t G-d care about is creations? Doesn’t He feel bad both when they suffer and when he gets bad PR because of their suffering?

Perhaps this is one of the major ways in which we do not understand how the world as it is seen by G-d differs from the world as it is seen by mankind. G-d’s creations it must surely be difficult for G-d to see his creations suffer but the element of PR is not there and He does not have to be concerned about what will others think about the way I have made My creations. He is in a situation in which there is nobody else, no competition and nobody else has to think about the way He does things or doesn’t do things. His decision is his alone and nobody can do anything about any of his decisions. Perhaps this is a way of showing that he exists as G-d without competition, without others around. When someone makes a creation on this earth the reason that he is worried about the PR is because there are others around. The person could be replaced by another. The person says listen, what I’m doing is better than what somebody else can do.

But the fact that G-d shows that he does not need the PR. The greatest evidence that He doesn’t care what anybody else may think because there are no other bodies, because there is no other G-d and that’s evidence that He’s the only one G-d. His uniqueness means that all the others who think negatively or positively, no one else is on His level anyhow will think negatively or positively about the creations and evidence that everybody else is subservient to Him. Thus, this factor itself is an element that the suffering itself proves the existence of G-d.

So those who question why did Iyov suffer, the reason that Iyov suffered is that G-d decided that he would suffer. The fact that he received a reward later is not an issue that is relevant to the events and the fact that G-d does not have to look around at what other people think is still evidence that there is nobody else for him to look around to, to get approval from, to get a smile or a nod from, no other competition, no one else who is going to be concerned about the decisions that G-d makes. It’s just G-d and G-d alone in these decisions. There can be no greater proof of it.