Rav Avigdor Miller on Why Species Become Extinct

And the answer is they became extinct because Hakodosh Boruch Hu wanted them to become extinct.  That’s all.  They are supplied with an ability to survive as long as Hakodosh Boruch Hu wants.

You have to know that despite the fact that אשר ברא אלקים לעשות — like the Ibn Ezra says, it means that the world should now function by itself — that’s only what it seems to be.  But you should remember that Hashem is still in charge.  Hakodosh Boruch Hu is יושב בסתר עליון – The Most High sits in secrecy.  And even though it seems that the world is functioning by nature automatically — no, He is the One who controls all of nature.

And therefore, sometimes great upheavals take place in nature — changes, unexpected things take place — in order to let us know that it’s not what we think: Somebody’s in charge. Not only species become extinct — even peoples become extinct.  All kinds of things take place in the world that are unexpected.

And the purpose is because unexpected things are a form of letting us know that there is Somebody Who’s in charge.  And therefore, if in our lives something unexpected takes place, so you say, “Why did this happen to me?  It never happened before.  Everything functioned normally.  All of a sudden, this thing happened?!”  It’s for the purpose of bringing to your attention that Hashem is behind the scenes and controlling everything.  And that’s the reason for every unusual event.

Now the truth is that even the usual events are expected to teach us about Hashem.  But in case people don’t utilize the usual events — let’s say they don’t see the wonders of nature that constantly speak of the glories of Hashem’s plan and purpose; they don’t study the thorns of the roses that demonstrate, “Here is a beautiful flower that’s equipped with weapons to defend itself”. The thorns are perfect weapons; a beautiful point, and nice and sharp, it can enter the skin expertly and inflict a real wound.  How did it happen that on this most beautiful, most beloved of all flowers, there are weapons? The answer is, because it’s the most beloved of all flowers, that’s why it needs weapons —to protect itself.

So people are expected to learn about Hashem from the regular phenomenon of nature.  But in case they don’t — which usually happens to be the case — so Hakodosh Boruch Hu, from time to time, reminds them He’s around by doing unusual things.

And that explains not only the extinction of species — it explains wars, it explains illnesses, accidents.  All of a sudden, something happens to somebody.  Why was he chosen to be a victim of such a queer accident?  And people are befuddled, and some people will start thinking, “Look, it’s a world of accidents.  Look what happened! All of a sudden such a thing happened, unexpected!”

The answer is there’s a purpose in it.  If things always continued according to the rules that we always followed and there were no exceptions, we’d forget entirely about Hashem.  But because the exceptions happen, we’re reminded that things are not that simple and therefore the intelligent person begins to consider that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is still in charge despite all the laws of nature.  And that’s what accidents are for.

And so now we learned the subject of ‘accidents’ — not only accidents of extinction of species: All accidents in life are to remind us that Hashem is around.

June 1989