When the Holocaust occurred in the late 1930s and 1940s, it raised a question in the Jewish communities of the role of God in trials and tribulation. Why would a good god — a merciful god — allow such atrocities to occur? Had they sinned at such an exponential level that it required such a response from God? Because at times it felt like nothing good came from the event, a new discussion emerged entitled Holocaust theology, which proved to become a collection of philosophical and theological debates discussing in essence the role of God in both the lives of humans and the universe. Does he care? Through analyzing The Trial of God by Elie Wiesel and After Auschwitz by Richard Rubenstein, these works suggest that either God does not exist or
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Robert McAfee Brown expounded on Wiesel’s brief description: “The trial lasted several nights. Witnesses were heard, evidence was gathered, conclusions were drawn, all of which issued finally in a unanimous verdict: the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, was found guilty of crimes against creation and humankind” (vii). This idea of God’s lack of interest and perhaps even hand in the events of the Holocaust has been echoed by a number of Jewish scholars and rabbis, leading to the idea of Holocaust theology. Much of Holocaust theology discusses the role of God in the world, whether He should or should not take an active role in the lives of His chosen people. What is most interesting about The Trial of God is that Wiesel struggled to find a time and place where he could set the play and so, he searched for an event that would have been devastating to a Jewish community, but not on the scale of the Holocaust. He selected Eastern Europe in 1649, where a series of pogroms associated with the Khmelnytsky Uprising had occurred which devastated Jewish villages and communities of the time. While it is not set in the Holocaust, scholars feel that it is to a degree a commentary on the potential mindset of those who lived through the Holocaust. It sheds light on the
Robert McAfee Brown expounded on Wiesel’s brief description: “The trial lasted several nights. Witnesses were heard, evidence was gathered, conclusions were drawn, all of which issued finally in a unanimous verdict: the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, was found guilty of crimes against creation and humankind” (vii). This idea of God’s lack of interest and perhaps even hand in the events of the Holocaust has been echoed by a number of Jewish scholars and rabbis, leading to the idea of Holocaust theology. Much of Holocaust theology discusses the role of God in the world, whether He should or should not take an active role in the lives of His chosen people. What is most interesting about The Trial of God is that Wiesel struggled to find a time and place where he could set the play and so, he searched for an event that would have been devastating to a Jewish community, but not on the scale of the Holocaust. He selected Eastern Europe in 1649, where a series of pogroms associated with the Khmelnytsky Uprising had occurred which devastated Jewish villages and communities of the time. While it is not set in the Holocaust, scholars feel that it is to a degree a commentary on the potential mindset of those who lived through the Holocaust. It sheds light on the