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God’s Silence in the Face of Evil

Our Gemara on Amud Beis describes a legal distinction in the liability of a squatter on land owned by the Sacred Treasury and privately owned land. We have a rule that a squatter does not incur financial liability after the fact, if the owner had not known prior to his squatting. The argument is, no harm done, you didn’t lose any money and we never agreed to an arrangement. It’s not that this was proper behavior, as it was wrong. Still, to incur legal obligations, there needs to be either advance agreement or tangible transfer of something from owner to renter. Since the owner lost nothing, and there was no prior awareness and no agreement to pay, there are no financial encumbrances.

However, the Sacred Treasury of the Temple has a divine owner. God always knows everything and since He has declared penalties for misuse of sacred funds and objects, the squatter has automatically engaged in an agreement with the treasury and must pay rent, even when there was no tangible loss to the owner.

The idea that God is omnipotent, omniscient and yet remains mostly silent in response to Man’s every day transgressions and violations, let alone, allowing evil to prosper, is captured poignantly in a Midrash and play on words in Shemos (15:11):

מִֽי־כָמֹ֤כָה בָּֽאֵלִם֙ ה׳

Who is like you, Hashem amongst all the mighty (Eilim) heavenly beings?

In pondering the cruel tortures and desecrations committed when the Temple was conquered, Rabbi Yishmael (Gittin 56b) ruefully said, “Who is like you Hashem in your capacity to be mute?” (The Hebrew word for mute is Ilem, which is phonetically similar to Eilim, the mighty.) Rabbi Yoshnael was saying, God, how can you be so silent in the face of this evil?

Kli Yakkar (ibid) explains the play on words in a more profound manner. God’s Silence in the face of evil comes from strength, not weakness. Similar to a professional soldier or fighter who remains passive when provoked by an upstart. He simply doesn’t even waste his energy and time on this impotent threat. Therefore, the word eilim is not only hinting at the silence, but the strength and silence are one in the same.

Kli Yakkar could be understood more esoterically. God’s omnipotence and power must be limited in order to allow anything material to exist. God had to be metzamtzem, in some way pull back in order to allow physical temporal processes. This is deeper than God “allowing” us to have free choice. Existence itself as we know it, must be distant enough from God to allow for it to unfold. Otherwise we would be swallowed up like a drop of water in the ocean. God is so strong that he must remain silent. 

The greatest act of love is acknowledging another’s unique existence and differentness from you. This allows for sight and insight. We can love Hashem by recognizing that He is beyond our ability to comprehend, but God shows His love for us by allowing us to exist and even behave incomprehensibly, because we are necessarily imperfect. We can model God’s acceptance and strength in making space and allowing the people we love to really exist.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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