Harold Kushner

God brought them to Egypt to grow, yet to remain a distinctive nation.

Many years ago, there was a rabbi named Harold Kushner.

He wrote a best-selling book titled, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

The whole point of his book was to say that God is all loving, but not all powerful.

But they all had this question about, okay, if I'm saved by grace, what is my obligation to the Old Testament law now? Because the Jews believed that the law is what made them holy with God.

I remember watching a debate between the famous Rabbi Harold Kushner and a Christian spokesman on how a person can go to heaven when they die.

And this Christian spokesman said, well, nobody can be good enough to go to heaven.

Rabbi Kushner responded and said, oh, yes, you can.

I love it.

Can I read a quote from Rabbi Harold Kushner, who was reflecting on the death of his son? He said, quote, Exactly.

Yeah.

Celebrating the fact that a particular causal step along a painful process brought something good does not entail endorsement of the whole thing by any means.

We can begin doubting God and thinking and having a caricature of God in our minds that Satan feeds to us, that God is some kind of a vicious tyrant, God has no compassion, or that God is weak.

Like Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

you know, almost certainly leaning on Job, Book of Job and others, other insights.

But he basically argued that God is well-meaning but somewhat powerless and can't really help us in these circumstances.

And then I guess, and I would again, uh, just, uh, direct you to my, my book that just came out.

I have in there a, a dialogue with Harold Kushner, who wrote When, uh, When, uh, Bad Things Happen to Good People.

We have dialogued a lot.

He, he is a, a beautiful human being and a very good thinker.

He's unable to do it.

Back in the 1960s, which is before some of you were born, there was a book put out by a rabbi, Rabbi Harold Kushner, and it became a very widely read book.

It was called When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

He was a deist.

Yeah, they become part of the nones.

I had a fascinating conversation with Rabbi Harold Kushner, who wrote the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and he talked about the yearning that people have for organized religion, that that's where you act out your faith, that faith can't be practiced in its entirety in isolation.

And when you pull away from the church, that's what you're trying to do, and you suffer, but the church suffers as well.

He said that he grew up in a synagogue in Brooklyn, and he said, "My rabbi and mentor was considered the finest Jewish preacher in the United States at the time." And he said, "I still sense his presence looking over my shoulder as I'm preparing a sermon, asking, 'Are you being authentic?'" But he said, "As I thought back on his ministry, his message consistently was, 'What can you do to strengthen Judaism?'" He said, "My message is, 'How can Judaism help you?'"

Actually, um, to be more precise, the question is: why do bad things happen to good people?

Well, I don't wanna completely, um, plagiarize the title of the book by Rabbi Harold Kushner, but exactly.

Yes, exactly.

But as I think I've mentioned, I believe this is the case, that titles are not copyrightable, so I think we're safe.

... of, of-

Classic

... of, of Harold Kushner.

Yeah.

Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has already been in the ages before us.

The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.'" Our spiritual voice is Harold Kushner.

"The purpose of life is not to win.

The purpose of life is to grow and to share.

Our legacy is not about making a name for ourselves.

Rather, it's our witness that somehow lives on in spirit, in a breath that is received by future generations.

As Harold Kushner says, "The purpose in life is not to win.

The purpose in life is to grow and share." And with that, the accounting ledger changes.