I think you are way off base in your denigration of "pleading ignorance" as somehow an inappropriate response. There are numerous statements in Hazal such as "behadi kavshi derahmana lama lakh?" and the notion of "vayidom aharon" has been used in much homiletical literature to argue for humility in the face of this great hurban visited upon our people. Analogizing from Tanakh into our world context where there is no nevuah and no neveeim is problematic at best. (That doers not mean that tragedy should not be a spur to teshuva as you rightly noted, but as the rav points out in the first part of Kol dodi dofek that is a response that forces man to act and respond to how will he live in the face of the reality of evil, not "why" did this happen) I would recommend that you get a hold of the tape of a fascinating sicha Rav Lichtenstein gave at Gush in 1986 on asarah betevet after Rav Shakh gave a talk where he intimated some reasons why german Jewry was devastated, and spoke of the Nazis as "shlikhim" of the Ribbono shel Olam and it caused a big uproar in Israel. a summary of this talk can be found in "Daf Kesher #1pg. 110-ask someone at Gush or an alumnus to copy those pages for you. Let me just cite a few lines for you (after Rav Aharon presents various approaches to the Shoah, including a "mipnei hataueinu" theology or God's letting free will play itself out and others current in Orthodox circles):

"However, it is preferable to remain with the question, even if multiplied by six million than to accept these answers, not because there are better answers, there are not...for us as "maaminim" it is better to remain with the questions and the faith that surrounds it and not to grab on to this or that answer, We cannot and will never be able to give a rationale for this phenomenon. Someone, upon being asked if he believes that one day an answer to the shoah will be found, answered "I hope not!" a woman once asked Leib Rochman (a writer and survivor) "where was Gods during the Shoah?" he answered her "he was with us". The question exists, however if we cannot give an explanation to all types of small details of history, for we do not see its entire trajectory, "kal vahomer" to an event such as this."

Nati Helfgot

(The views expressed in this essay do not necessarily reflect the views of Tzemach Dovid)

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