Outline and explain Jewish theological and philosophical responses to the Holocaust.

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Judaism Coursework

R1) Outline and explain Jewish theological and philosophical responses to the Holocaust.

The word Holocaust comes from the Latin word Holo, "to burn" or to be "burnt". Holocaust literally means 'burnt sacrifice", the Hebrew word for Holocaust is "Shoah". During the Second World War six million Jews were murdered, this was one third of the world's Jewish population. This left Jews with a huge theological problem, this problem was in the form of a question.

There is one question that Jewish people have had to face ever since the Holocaust happened. This question was asked of the Jews and also by the Jews of themselves. The question is: "How can a G_d that is meant to be all-loving and all-powerful allow such an event as the Holocaust to happen to his people?"

Jews believe in the G_d of classical theology but they also believe that G_d has specifically chosen them to be his special people. This G_d is believed to be omnipresent (everywhere), omnipotent (all-powerful), omnibenevolent (all-loving/all-good) and omniscient (all-knowing). This was a problem for some Jews as they felt a G_d that had all of these qualities should have been able to save