I was thinking about the film A Serious Man, made by the Coen brothers. The film is unusual because it ‘begins’ with a short film shot in sepia about a poor Jewish couple in nineteenth century Russia who are visited by a dybbuk (a malicious spirit) that has inhabited the body of a recently deceased rabbi.

The wife is fearful and practical. The husband is ambivalent and hesitant. There is not much of a story but the thread that runs through it is that the wife is certain that she and her husband will be visited by more bad luck.

Then we segue into the main film – A Serious Man – about a man who watches his life fall apart around him. Set in the present day, the main protagonist is a lecturer at a college somewhere on the East Coast of the U.S. – an intelligent man with a responsible job.

His wife is leaving with another man and doing it right under his nose. His daughter ignores and derides him. His son, who is soon to be bar-mitzvah’d, seems to be in a world of his own. His boss at work is enigmatic and disconcerting. His wife’s new boyfriend patronises him.

In the middle of all of this one of his students tries to bribe him to change his grade on a paper.

Near the end of the film, and after saying no, no, no – the serious man decides to take the bribe.

And immediately the phone rings and it is his doctor saying he should come in right away to discuss the results of his latest tests.

There – the reward for his sin of accepting the bribe is that his life immediately changes for the worse and he will probably die.

Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People
He is basically a good man. He has a moral conscience. He tries to do right. For whatever reasons due to pressures on him, he falters and does something he knows he should not.

You can see that he almost takes the bribe out of desperation to be seen and heard. Somehow it is payback time for the anguish he is feeling because everyone around him seems to be taking no notice of him.

It is almost like he joined the human race.

And this is his reward! That he should be struck down with a serious illness, perhaps die!

How can this be fair? When there are people who do much worse things and don’t suffer any consequences. They even prosper.

The Answer According To
The protagonist in A Serious Man is Jewish, so it seems right and fitting to examine the question from the point of view of the touchstone of his beliefs.

There is a thread in the Jewish tradition that teaches that the inclination to do evil is a strange beast. For a man who does what he wants without a thought as to whether it is right or wrong, the inclination to do evil has no work to do and so it becomes fat, lazy, and weak.

But with a man who is striving to do good, the inclination to do evil is really stretched. It is in tip-top condition, so it waits for its moment, and then it slips in and does its work.

And the nearer that a man gets to being a good man, the finer the balance and the greater the consequences for doing a bad thing.

Moreover, the nearer a man is to being a good man, the more that a small bad thing will bring about serious consequences.

Whereas that same bad thing if done by a bad man will not bring about serious consequences or perhaps even any consequences at all.

Whether this is all true of course, is another question, but we can at least accept that there is logic in the system of thought that holds it together. It is not crazy and illogical, at least.

And The Lesson From This Is?
So, accepting for the moment the truth of the system that says there is a an evil inclination and a sliding scale of consequences depending on whether someone is striving to be a good person or not – who is doling out the consequences?

And the answer in the Jewish tradition is that it is of course God who is doing this.

It is obvious that there has to be more to the Judaic system than just this ‘inclination-and-consequences’ part – otherwise the lesson to learn from this is that it is better to be a bad man.

‘Be really bad and get away with just about anything – and with no serious consequences.’

Wow – that’s the way to go!

Before going any further I should say that according to the tradition, a man has an inclination to do good, as well – so there is always a contest going on between the two inclinations.

Be that as it may, what is the heart of the question of why bad things happen to good people?

The Right Question
The answer is, I think that it is not the right question. Of course, we are interested in why bad things happen to good people, but tell me if this isn’t true? What we really want to know is why bad things don’t happen to bad people?

This is really the question that everyone wants an answer to and it is really the question that The Serious Man is asking when he looks around and sees everyone being smart and gaming the system and getting ahead.

And that is really the test – whether one can be a fool when everyone around you is being smart.