In Sunday school this morning, we continued our exploration of Job. It still feels very appropriate, but there are some very odd thoughts in the class about “bad things.” One of the people in the class said that they thought it was wrong for people to ask God why he allowed bad things to happen, because it’s all our own fault.

To me, this is the antithesis of Job. Satan goes to God three times to ask permission to bring calamity upon Job. The very text of Job is exploring the human reaction to God allowing bad things to happen, because it isn’t Job’s fault that his children die or his camels are stolen.

However, beyond my disagreement with my compatriot, I found the rest of the class boring. I agreed with the teacher that the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is broken, as no one is truly good. I also agreed that God uses bad things to equip us for the future. However, the discussion terminated there, which was disappointing.

As some of you already know, the bris (or b’rit bat) for Sara’s daughter was in the afternoon. As someone who does not speak, read, or have any formal training with Hebrew, I was invited to attend, but not asked to do one of the readings for the ceremony. (Which was fine with me.) However, an hour before the ceremony was scheduled to start, one of the other participants backed out, leaving Sara down a reader. She asked me to fill in, but wanted me to read in both English and Hebrew. Neither she nor the Rabbi had time to help, but one of Sara’s uncles did. I had a fifteen minute lesson, which was thankfully sufficient to make it through the reading without stumbling and sounding like an idiot. 😉