On Theodicy and Shrimp

Why we should thank Hashem for the miracles even when there's bad

First, hello all my new subscribers! Thanks for subscribing. Not to brag, but I now have over 500!¹ Thank you Hashem.

Which leads me to this: Two weeks ago, I published the following post thanking Hashem for the miracle of the Israeli victory in the 12 Day War:

A follower DMed me the following question:

My question is on your view of God. Is he omnipotent? Is he not responsible for each rocket that lands as well? “Chasdei Hashem rocket lands on hospital (and destroys its life saving capabilities) but no one was hurt” is one of the more humorous kol Haolam headlines. I just don’t get how you praise God in the moment that he is exacting a terrible price on you.

And to be fair that’s a pretty good question. And while theodicy is a pretty old question, I have to admit I did not have a good answer. Until now.

First, here are the three classic answers:

1. Who are you to question God!?

2. They deserved it, those sinning bastards

3. It was really good in the end because gilgulim, amazing outcomes or stuff

And of course, Scott Alexander has his great answer as well.

However, I suspect the questioner already heard those answers, and besides, his question wasn’t on praising God or theodicy in general, just the specific how we praise while being attacked.

But thanks to some suffering shrimp, I now have the answer.

Here’s some necessary background:

Matthew Adelstein writes Bentham’s Bulldog, one of the best substacks on this site. While he himself is not religious, he believes in God, and has written one of the best posts I’ve ever read on the subject:

Arguments For God Tier-list

His dad, Bruce, is a Conservative Jew, actually wrote an interesting post to an old question on the Torah, which while Kefiradig, can easily be modified to be acceptable for frum Jews as well:

The Bible, Divine Revelation, and Dynamic System Theory

But what Matthew/Bentham is most famous for is his consistent advocacy for one of the weirdest charity causes of all time: Saving shrimp from suffering - not saving their lives, just saving them from suffering (the following is just one of his many posts on the subject):

The Best Charity Isn't What You Think

I have had it out with him in the comments many times, with my objection essentially being that shrimp aren’t people, and we don’t have a moral obligation to prevent their suffering even if I personally wouldn’t harm them myself, and him saying yes we do.

Matthew’s advocacy was picked up by the Daily Show (and even if you didn’t read all the previous links, please watch this video):

Now here’s my question: Are you going right now to donate to save these shrimps from suffering? (If you are, stop reading here.) No? Why not? It’s because shrimps aren’t people.

Well, guess what? In comparison to an infinite Omniscient God, you too are just as morally significant as a shrimp. God does not need to morally get involved in our affairs even if he can. If Iran is shooting rockets at Iraq, God could get involved if he wants to, but since God himself is not doing the shooting, He is doing nothing immoral, and by not getting involved, he is also not doing anything immoral, because people aren’t Gods - just like shrimps aren’t people.

So when Hashem does seemingly get involved to stop the rockets from causing major harm² or makes bombs explode at the wrong time or all the other small nissim that occur to us throughout our days and lives³, it is only proper and moral to praise Him for that, because He has no moral obligation to get involved but he does - because he loves us.

How great and lucky we are that such a mighty God loves all humans and chose us as a nation and cares about us one on one as well. Because he does - even though he doesn’t have to.

And if you disagree, then go save the shrimp.

1. Well, at least before I published this post. Stop unsubscribing, shrimp-lovers!

2. Even if they did land in Bnei Brak.

Bnei Brak: Now with new and improved protection!

3. If you don’t believe in God or think that everything is a coincidence (which is required, because you assume this anthropic universe is an insane coincidence), this post ain’t for you. It’s for God believers who are wondering how we could praise Him when he’s seemingly harming us.