Is the Holocaust a stumbling block for Jews?

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bhuntfl

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My Jewish friend says the Holocaust is a stumbling block for Jews in their belief in God. He wonders how any just and merciful God could have allowed the Holocuast. (He knows the argument of original sin and man’s free will, but seeks a different answer.)
 
The great spiritual tragedy of the Holocaust for the Jewish people – setting aside the physical catastrophe for the sake of answering this question – is that it did indeed create a vast theological dilemma for many Jews. How could a good, loving, omnipotent God have allowed his own chosen people to suffer so horrendously? How could he have “sat back” and let it happen? Some Jewish theologians have gone so far as to question God’s omnipotence, his goodness, and even his existence. (See this article for a summary of Holocaust theology.)

Generally speaking, the Holocaust has never posed a theological problem for orthodox Christianity because orthodox Christians have traditionally believed that God himself entered into human suffering, experienced it himself to an unimaginable degree, and redeemed it, thereby making it possible for human suffering to have value, when offered up in union with God’s own suffering, both as a means of repairing the world and individual human beings. When human beings suffer Christians instinctively see Christ suffering in them because Christ united himself to humanity. Such an understanding of the redemption of human suffering goes back to the apostles, when Saul of Tarsus, who was persecuting Christians, was asked by Jesus, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4, emphasis added).

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