The Jews are perceived as the “chosen people” of an...

The Jews are perceived as the â€Å"chosen people† of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God. However, the Shoah has posed as a challenge to the belief in the God of tradition who intervenes in history. It is questioned by Rubenstein, ‘how can Jews believe in an omnipotent, beneficent God after Auschwitz?. Therefore, maintaining belief in an all loving and all powerful God after the Holocaust has unsurprisingly been difficult for some Jews. Jewish scripture reveals how God intervened in the history to save his people from tragedy and to punish for sin. For example, the destruction of the temple in 70CE and God’s intervention to save his people as told in Exodus 14, where God selects Moses to lead his chosen people out of slavery in Egypt.†¦show more content†¦This essay will highlight the challenge the Holocaust inflicted upon Jewish thinkers and will illustrate the affect the catastrophe had upon belief in the God of tradition. Attempting to reconcile the existence of God with the occurrence of the Shoah is not an easy task, as why would an all loving God allow 2/3rds of his people to be murdered for being Jewish? However, Ignaz Maybaum’s response to God’s role during the Holocaust coincides with the traditional understanding of a God who intervenes in history. Previously serving as a liberal rabbi, Maybaum affirms the continuity of the covenant between God and Israel and maintains the belief that God intervenes in the history of his chosen people. Within ‘The Face of God after Auschwitz’, Maybaum affirms that the Holocaust was a deliberate intervention of God, but he rejects the concept that the Shoah was punishment for sin. Here we can see how Maybaum maintains the traditional belief in a God who intervenes in history, but modifies the traditional concept of God intervening to punish for sin. Maybaum states that the Jews were murdered during the Holocaust for the sins of mankind, which echoes the parable of the suffering servant as told in Isaiah 52:13. Whilst this is not the common understanding of God’s role inShow MoreRelatedBeyond the Problem of Evil Essay6495 Words   |  26 PagesProblem of Evil Introduction: The problem of evil is, in my opinion, the best point of departure for a fruitful dialogue between Christianity, traditionally conceived, and those strands of modern philosophy which have been perceived--indeed, have sometimes perceived themselves--as a threat to that tradition. As such, I will attempt first, to outline the problem of evil in the starkest terms possible, presenting Augustines approach to its solution followed by a critical analysis; second, to