Menachot 29: Why the Righteous Are Not Always Rewarded

Today's daf tells one of the more well-known stories in the Talmud.  Rabbi Yehuda said in the name of Rav that Moshe found G-d affixing crowns to the to the letters in the Torah at the top of Mount Sinai. G-d explained that he was doing this after the fact because one day, many years from now, Akiva ben Yosef will derive many halachot from the crowns.  Moshe asked to see him.  G-d said, "Turn around." and Moshe sat at the back of eight rows of students listening to Rabbi Akiva lecture.  Moshe was upset because he could not follow the arguments.  Then disciples asked for a source, and Rabbi Akiva said that it was given to Moshe at Sinai, which calmed Moshe.  

Moshe then returned to G-d, incredulous that G-d would choose him to deliver Torah when he had people like Akiva.  G-d said "be silent, for this is My decree."  Moshe asked to see Akiva's reward after witnessing his Torah.  G-d had Moshe turn around again and he viewed people weighing out Akiva's flesh in market stalls.  Moshe was devastated.  How could that be the reward for such Torah mastery? Again, G-d said, "be silent, for this is My decree".

The rabbis discuss this at length.  G-d's thoughts are said to be different than those of people - in fact, we cannot understand G-d's thinking at all.  Perhaps as the Sages said, G-d's first decree was to create a world filled with perfect justice, but He then learned that we were not capable of fulfilling that decree.  Those who are exceptional, like Rabbi Akiva, are judged according to the letter of the law.

This notion of the righteous being judged by a heavier hand reminds me of another line of Jewish thought.  We must find ways of explaining why those who are righteous fall ill and die, why they are poor and suffering, why they experience tragedy.  The argument that G-d judges the righteous will a more exacting hand is one more explanation of "why bad things happen to good people".