What should we do if trouble affects a society?
From the text of Maimonides (Rambam), Laws of Fasts 1:2-3. “…when a difficulty arises [which affects a community because of their sins], and the people cry out [to G-d in prayer to save them]… everyone will realize that [the difficulty] occurred because of their evil conduct… This [realization, and their repentance and prayers] will cause the removal of this difficulty from among them.”
“Conversely, should the people fail to cry out [to G-d]… and instead say, ‘What has happened to us is a natural phenomenon, and this difficulty is a chance occurrence,’… this [denial] causes them to remain attached to their sins, and more difficulties will be added.”
What can lead to difficulties, and how can they be averted?
This is explained in the book Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge. See the Sixth Gate, “The Gate of Being Tested by G-d”, Chapter 2:
What is their additional sin, in the second case? By ignoring the message of the difficulty that was originally sent to them from G-d, as a sign from Heaven, they are portraying the acts of G-d in the world as random and therefore cruel (G-d forbid), and they deny the truth of His ways (even though this was clearly taught by all the prophets of the Hebrew Bible)…
A trouble that comes upon a community results from their sins as a community; e.g., they may be accepting of a particular serious sin or immoral behavior that many of the people there commit regularly as their normal way of acting. Some examples in the Hebrew Bible are: the generations of: the Flood and the Tower of Babel; [1] the metropolis around Sodom [which practiced cruelty and sexual immorality] in the days of Abraham; [2] the city of Nineveh [where the people indulged in theft and extortion] in the days of the prophet Jonah; [3] and the Land of Israel [when the people sinned through idolatry and drunkenness] in the days of the prophet Joel. [4]
If the people admit and stop their sinful behavior that caused this, and collectively repent, they will be forgiven, and the trouble will be averted (if they were warned before it happens) as G-d did for the people of Nineveh, [5] or removed as in the time of Joel.
Footnotes
[1] Genesis 6:1-5,11 and 17:1-9, respectively.
[2] Genesis 18:20, and 19:4,5,9.
[3] Jonah 1:2 and 3:5-10.
[4] Joel 1:5 and 2:27.
This web page is adapted from the book Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner of Jerusalem. See the Sixth Gate (The Gate of Being Tested by G-d), ch. 2 (A Trouble or Tribulation that Comes Upon Society…). You may click this link for the book to read it on-line.
