Our tradition says (just to name a few) three interesting things:
1) Hashem doesn't load on us bigger yoke than we are able to bear.
2) Hashem has higher moral demands on righteous people than on average ones, and their challenges might be bigger than of the others.
3) Any challenge has a potential to help us grow. If we make mistake, even a major one, we can return to the right path (tshuva).
A superficial understanding, based on the culture of personal comfort, or alternatively on ascetic tendencies, would lead to the following conclusions:
1) I can bear anything that happens. I must succeed to overcome all life challenges smoothly and with elegance. People who hurt me are heavenly messengers, and I should maybe thank them.
2) I don't want to be righteous, it really doesn't pay. It is easier not to strive for being a better person, because good people have it more difficult. Alternative reaction: If I find something very difficult, it means I am righteous.
3) We should look forward to any challenge, and we should even look for it actively, as challenges lead to spiritual growth. Everything has some positive meaning (but to say so, do we not just cheaply comfort ourselves?).
However, the tradition also says that these conclusions are completely wrong. Which conclusions are then correct? Or at least close to being correct?
(to be continued, suggestions welcome)
I understand that the tradition does say you can deal with anything which happens to you, but it does not say anywhere it will be smooth or easy. Also "bearing it" is the wrong term, that is exactly what we should not do. Hashem does not send us suffering so we should bear it, he sends it so we should do something about it. So it would be more correct to say, I can find a proper response to anything which happens to me, and change accordingly, or learn the relevant lesson.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely do not have to thank the people who hurt you, even though ultimately the lesson is for your good, if you find the right way to respond to it.
Your second point is harder. In the short term, life is a lot easier if you do not try to do the right thing. You can think of a secular parallel - spending a lot of time studying is very hard, and you lose out on all the fun partying, so why do it? And the answer is to look at the next world, the time after school, when those who studied do well, and those who partied are punished by not having the skills they need.
I also think your alternative interpretation, "If I find something very difficult, it means I am righteous", is wrong. (A lot of people like to use that idea to reassure themselves when things are difficult, instead of trying to. ) It means that you can learn something or change something, and become righteous. (This goes back to bearing your suffering. If Hashem only wanted you to bear it, than just having a problem would be a good sign. But Hashem wants you to do something about it, so the suffering is more a sign of potential than actual.)
'Katonti.' Thanks for the ideas. The problem is exactly that we may not find the right way to react, to change our attitude, or to learn the relevant lesson.
ReplyDeleteMay it be His will, that we learn the right lessons, not wrong ones (as sometimes happens).