Let’s start with the archetype of Jewish tragedy, the background for the seminal event of our history, the Exodus. What sin did the Jewish people commit to deserve slavery in Egypt? Even Moses demands of G‑d, “Why have You done evil to this people?” The Midrash describes Moses’ complaint in poignant terms:
“I took the Book of Genesis. I read it. I saw the deeds of the generation of the Deluge, and how they were judged. This was justice. I saw the generation that built the Tower of Babel, and the Sodomites, and how they were judged. This was justice. But this nation, what have they done to be oppressed more than any generation before them?”
When Moses arrived on the scene in Egypt, did he say to the people, “You are being punished for your sins. Repent and you will be redeemed!”? No—first he risked his own life to redeem them by confronting Pharaoh, and risked even more by challenging G‑d; he put up with all their kvetching for forty years and only then, in his last days, finally tells them off. But nowhere do we see him justifying G‑d for their enslavement.
In our Yom Kippur prayers we describe the ten great sages who were tortured to death by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago. The Talmud paints a picture of G‑d revealing to Moses every generation and its teachers. Moses sees the greatness of Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues. Then he sees how Rabbi Akiva screams “Shema Yisrael” as the Romans flay him alive with metal combs. Moses protests, “This is Torah and this is its reward?!”
G‑d’s retort? “Quiet! This is what I have decided.”
Obviously, if there were sins that could explain the punishment, G‑d would not have withheld that explanation from Moses. Certainly G‑d has reasons for all that He does. But not necessarily reasons that we can understand or swallow.
It’s true that we say in our prayers, “Because of our sins we were exiled from our land.” It’s also true that the Torah and the prophets include calamities that come (or are threatened to come) as Divine retribution, and that Maimonides exhorts us that when tragedy strikes we should search our deeds and repent our failings.
But many centuries before political correctness, the sages of Israel insisted that something much deeper than punishment is going on here. Time and again, they reiterate that not everything can be explained under the narrow lens of reward and retribution.
Certainly there is justice in the world—a Higher Power that rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked (indeed, this is one of the 13 fundamental principles of Judaism). And there are many instances throughout the era of the judges and the kings where prophets told the Jews clearly, “Because of all your sins, these things have come upon you!” And certainly, it is a good idea to repent when bad things befall you.
But to stand up and pronounce judgment on someone else—and especially to say that I know G‑d’s will and G‑d’s mind, and I know that this happened because of this, or that if you people continue this way such-and-such will, G‑d forbid, befall you—that’s something only a prophet can do. And even then, only as part of an explicit mission from Above.
In fact, the sages tell us, even Isaiah was punished when he said to G‑d, “I live among a people whose lips are impure.” Here the sages describe G‑d’s response:
“Isaiah, you are permitted to say ‘I am a man of impure lips.’ But when you say, ‘I live among a people of impure lips’—that I will not tolerate!”
And so, immediately an angel came with a coal and burnt his lips. G‑d said, “Burn the lips of this person who speaks accusations against My children!”