When Bad Things Happen To Good People by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

When Bad Things Happen To Good People - who wouldn't want to read a book with that title? Don't most of us think of ourselves as "good people" and then we wonder why bad things happen to us, our families, our relatives?

I first received a hard-cover version of this book in 1982 when my Dad, Charles F. Seymour, gave a copy to my wife, Pam, and me. Here's what he wrote inside:


Dear Pam and Charlie:

I hope that you will read this book -

  • Not because you are suffering grief - but, since most of us do some day, you probably will;
  • Not because you have rejected God - but because, like me, you have have found it difficult to accept the God usually defined by "traditional" religions;
  • Not because God is mysterious or unfair - but because the God discussed in this book is both understandable and likable;
  • And because I hope that this refreshing image of God will be helpful to you and to Stacie [our older daughter - Liz wasn't born yet] when your family is happy, as well as when youa re sad and can use some extra support.

    Love,
    Dad
    2/22/82

  • Wow… that's such a gift from my dad, a very loving man in his own quiet way.

    I hope that you, too, will enjoy this book of hope, of enlightenment, of faith and understanding. It's one of my favorites.

    Charlie

    Book Description

    Rarely does a book come along that tackles a perennially difficult human issue with such clarity and intelligence. Harold Kushner, a Rabbi facing his own child's fatal illness, deftly guides us through the inadequacies of the traditional answers to the problem of evil, then provides a uniquely practical and compassionate answer that has appealed to millions of readers across all religious creeds. Remarkable for its intensely relevant real-life examples and its fluid prose, this book cannot go unread by anyone who has ever been troubled by the question, "Why me?"

    And on Wikipedia, you find:
    Kushner rejects suggestions that human suffering is God’s punishment for misdeeds. He also does not believe that suffering is God’s way of teaching people valuable lessons about humility and spiritual strength. Rather, he believes that human suffering is an innate part of God’s creation of the universe and that its objects are selected at random. People do not fall ill or suffer tragedy because God chose to inflict it on them, he argues, but rather because this is the way of world. When the wheel turns one way or another, people are caught up in it—good people or bad people, but not because they are good or bad.

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