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ABERNETHY: Rabbi Moline, the question, "Where is God in the midst of suffering," is a familiar one to Jews, especially after the Holocaust. Can anyone blame God for all this evil?

RABBI JACK MOLINE: Blame is a question that troubles us as human beings, I think more than it is of a theological concern for us. It's important to hold God accountable for the world that God created in which we live. But it's far more important for us to take responsibility for our own actions, whether we meet the potential with which we've been endowed.

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RABBI MOLINE: I think there is a very strong dividing line between Christian theology and Jewish theology. For, for us to consider forgiveness without contrition first, I think is obscene. The acts that were perpetrated here were willful acts of evil. For us to forgive without an expression of contrition from those who are in any way responsible, is akin to putting a target on the tallest buildings in the United States.

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RABBI MOLINE: I think it's important to distinguish between a pastoral care, and good theology here. I would concur that people's feelings of anger, I share those feelings of anger need to be acknowledged, but that we have to be cautioned that our religious traditions are strong because they've been tested over time. Our reactions are short term and temporal, and the best thing right now is to turn back to our traditions for their guidance, rather than to act about it on kind of internal impulse.

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ABERNETHY: It would be very hard to restrain very, very forceful action.

RABBI MOLINE: That's why we're called a community instead of a collection of individuals.

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