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Theodicy asks one of the most difficult questions of faith: how to speak of God in a world marked by suffering and injustice. Why do the righteous suffer, and where is God in moments of darkness? Too often, religious thinkers attempt to justify suffering by blaming the victims. Jewish thought, on the other hand, is unwilling to let God off the hook, and wrestles with evil, responsibility, and moral courage—insisting that faith matures not through certainty, but through struggle.
In Holocaust, Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Theodicy, Parashat Bechukotai and Yom HaShoah by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
It is difficult to argue that the Holocaust was caused by divine anger for the violations of Torah precepts and deliberate heresy.
How do we live with a God Who sometimes violates all that our own limited thoughts and feelings can grasp and express? It would be easier if we could deny God's very existence, the grandeur of all creation is too powerful to allow us to deny that He is there. But how are we to answer His silence when tragedy strikes?
In The Kotzker Rebbe, Theodicy and Parashat Vayera by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
To believe in God is to believe not only that there is ultimate meaning to our existence but also that this meaning is completely beyond our comprehension. We do not know why God created the universe and man; to know that, we would have to be God.
Response to Questions from Readers
While other religious traditions may believe that questioning God is unacceptable, Judaism encourages them and Tanach is replete with such questions. Complaints of heresy are often rooted in the fact that we believe that God owes us a human answer.
In Theodicy and Parashat Noach by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo
By making God good by our standards, we are essentially making God into an idol, one who fits our standards and fulfills our needs. That is surely not the Jewish God.