Miriam Shaviv writes: "A new book of responsa by Rav Elyashiv includes a statement that cancer -- which he refers to as 'the incurable disease' -- comes as a "punishment" because people (in general) have "distanced themselves from religion" and because there has been an increase in disrespect to Torah and its scholars (See Maariv / NRG for the more detailed Hebrew original).
"I do not need to elaborate on the hideousness and insensitivity of such a statement."
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Rav Elyashiv's statement is basic Torah. It is not intended, I believe, to be said to anyone suffering from cancer. But that is how the Torah sees the world. That there is one law ruling the universe and that law is moral and physical. When bad things happen to us, we should examine where we have gone wrong morally.
It is not an excuse for us to tell those who are suffering that they must have done wrong. It is an exhortation for us to morally improve and to see everything that happens to us, including parking tickets and cancer, as warnings from the Almighty that we need Him.
Look at Devarim and the paragraphs in the liturgy after the shma. If we follow God's will [assuming we live in a vacuum], we will, all things being equal, lead blessed lives.
From a Torah perspective, everything that happens to us is the will of God.
I do not think there is anything hideous in the rabbi's words. If he went around saying them to cancer sufferers, that would be hideous. But he is not. He is speaking Torah. If people think they can flaunt the Torah and the admonitions of the sages and not suffer for it, they are fooling themselves. There will be physical repercussions for violating God's will. This won't be measured out equally to each person and it won't all come in this life, but there is a Judge and there will be Judgment. What's so controversial about that?
Frankly, if you don't agree with those simple sentiments, I don't know why you would be religious (of any religion, this is basic to all of them).
The rabbi's statement is no more than a religious analogy to "smoking cigarettes can cause cancer." Not everyone who smokes will get cancer and not everyone who defies the sages will get cancer. But doing both things will increase your odds of bad things happening to you.
As with Rav Shachter's remarks of a few weeks ago, we will soon hear hysterical condemnations (Miriam's critique, by contrast, was thoughtful, specific, and courageous even though I disagree with it) of the sages by those who are comparatively ignorant.
Now, I think great rabbis should be held accountable for their words. I think they should be publicly analyzed. I just don't think that those who know less Torah should fly off the handle and react with public rage and thoughtless emotion to statements that are basic to the Torah-perspective.
And for the record, I am fully aware that the most pious Jews were most likely to die in the Holocaust and the most secular were most likely to get out of Europe in safety before WWII.
My mother, a pious Christian, died of cancer in her 30s. I don't believe it was caused by her sins and I don't believe any decent Christian would ever have told her such a thing. I have a good friend, a secular friend, who has cancer, and I would rather shoot off my foot, as would any decent soul, than tell her that her cancer was caused by her secularism. But that doesn't negate the rabbi's teaching. It is just not for us to inflict that teaching on those who are suffering. The rabbi's teaching is a call for repentance.
As Rabbi Avigdor Miller put it, when you see a one-legged Puerto Rican hop down the street, that is a call for repentance to klal Yisrael.
Everything that happens is a call for Israel to repent and to cleave to HaShem. That the Dallas Cowboys cut their starting quarterback Quincy Carter this week, is, in the Torah view, a call for us return to G-d.
Judaism is a complex balancing of many competing values. Compassion for sick people is only one value among many. While Judaism condemns homosexuality, it has compassion for homosexuals.
You can't shout down a public comment because one suffering group may find it offensive. If a person directs needlessly painful remarks to specific persons, then he should be called on it. But if a rabbi gives a Torah view on cancer, then, if it springs from the Torah, it is a legitimate Torah view, even if it makes people uncomfortable.
Black comic Chris Rock makes jokes about black people which are funny. But if I, as a white man, were to tell them to black strangers, the jokes would be legitimately offensive. Context is king. The good rabbi here was not addressing a cancer ward.
Some human beings, being human beings, will bollix things up. I remember sitting around with a couple of Orthodox rabbis whose comment on Rabbi David Wolpe's brain surgery of nine months was that the Gemara says that those who hold heretical views will have brain problems. But even these rabbis with their harsh views would never have gone to Rabbi Wolpe and his family and friends and repeated these statements, at least not while the rabbi was suffering and fragile.
Shmarya weighs in. Can you guess where he comes down?
