בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּֽנוּ לַעֲסוֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה.
Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu laasok b’divrei Torah.
Praised are You, Ado-nai, Our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who made us holy with the commandments and instructed us to busy ourselves with Torah.
אָמַר רָבָא, אָמַר רַב סְחוֹרָה, אָמַר רַב הוּנָא: כׇּל שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא חָפַץ בּוֹ — מְדַכְּאוֹ בְּיִסּוּרִין, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וַה׳ חָפֵץ דַּכְּאוֹ הֶחֱלִי״. יָכוֹל אֲפִילּוּ לֹא קִבְּלָם מֵאַהֲבָה? — תַּלְמוּד לוֹמַר: ״אִם תָּשִׂים אָשָׁם נַפְשׁוֹ״, מָה אָשָׁם לְדַעַת, אַף יִסּוּרִין — לְדַעַת. וְאִם קִבְּלָם מַה שְּׂכָרוֹ: ״יִרְאֶה זֶרַע יַאֲרִיךְ יָמִים״. וְלֹא עוֹד אֶלָּא שֶׁתַּלְמוּדוֹ מִתְקַיֵּים בְּיָדוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וְחֵפֶץ ה׳ בְּיָדוֹ יִצְלָח״.
So too, Rava said that Rav Seḥora said that Rav Huna said: Anyone in whom the Holy One, Blessed be He, delights, He oppresses him with suffering, as it is stated: “Yet in whom the Lord delights, He oppresses him with disease; to see if his soul would offer itself in guilt, that he might see his children, lengthen his days, and that the desire of the Lord might prosper by his hand” (Isaiah 53:10). This verse illustrates that in whomever God delights, he afflicts with illness. I might have thought that God delights in him even if he does not accept his suffering with love. Therefore the verse teaches: “If his soul would offer itself in guilt.” Just as a guilt-offering is brought knowingly, as it is one of the sacrifices offered willingly, without coercion, so too his suffering must be accepted knowingly. And if one accepts that suffering with love, what is his reward? As the second part of the verse states: “That he might see his children, lengthen his days.” Moreover, in addition to these earthly rewards, his Torah study will endure and his Torah study will be successful, as it is stated: “The purpose of the Lord,” the Torah, the revelation of God’s will, “might prosper by his hand.”
רַבִּי חִיָּיא בַּר אַבָּא חֲלַשׁ. עָל לְגַבֵּיהּ רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן אֲמַר לֵיהּ: חֲבִיבִין עָלֶיךָ יִסּוּרִין? אֲמַר לֵיהּ: לֹא הֵן וְלֹא שְׂכָרָן. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: הַב לִי יְדָךְ. יְהַב לֵיהּ יְדֵיהּ, וְאוֹקְמֵיהּ.
The Gemara continues to address the issue of suffering and affliction: Rabbi Yoḥanan’s student, Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba, fell ill. Rabbi Yoḥanan entered to visit him, and said to him: Is your suffering dear to you? Do you desire to be ill and afflicted? Rabbi Ḥiyya said to him: I welcome neither this suffering nor its reward, as one who welcomes this suffering with love is rewarded. Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: Give me your hand. Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba gave him his hand, and Rabbi Yoḥanan stood him up and restored him to health.
- What are the challenges of a God who imposes suffering to teach us?
- Is all suffering considered 'educational'?
My personal trials have also taught me the value of unmerited suffering. As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways that I could respond to my situation: either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course. Recognizing the necessity for suffering I have tried to make of it a virtue. If only to save myself from bitterness, I have attempted to see my personal ordeals as an opportunity to transform myself and heal the people involved in the tragic situation which now obtains. I have lived these last few years with the conviction that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- 4/27/1960
"...Most sufferings (Yissurin) and pain were only created to alert a person to be careful and to seek a cure, to protect against danger to the body as a whole or to one part of the body. When the pains last a long time, when they become harsher than death ifself - God prepared a way to reduce their strength through [becoming accustomed] by habit, or as a result of medicines that reduce the feeling that comes through the nerves (literally, "The brain's pipes"). For example, a person who is used to douse the candle with one's fingers, the skin of the fingers gets tougher and eliminates the sharp feeling that the fingers were used to."
- Pain is a natural response to stimuli
- The biological response helps us to toughen up
"Even more so than physical pain are worry and fear, that precede by a significant margin the beginning of the pain itself, and they urge us to take control of our intellectual soul and take its counsel to separate ourselves from even the beginning of the pain; meaning, to turn ourselves out of its path, so that one is not hurt by it at all, or such that it becomes strangled...before ever seeing the light of day...
- Our fears teach us something by warning us, rousing our awareness
"Even so, people tend to be neglectful or to scorn these warnings due to laziness or the spirit of desires rooted in the animal soul, and as a result we get caught sometimes the sufferings that come upon us when we're not paying attention, and even then, the line of God's blessed mercy stretches out to us, in order to add misery upon one's misery as a result of regret - meaning, a person looks to the past and is significantly troubled by the fact they were not careful at the time of the trial and did not listen to the voice of those who rebuked them or the voice of their teachers...and [due to] the sharpened pain...the person does not want to fail [in responding and overcoming these things] again...
- What do we do when the hardships or suffering happen to us in a way we could neither prepare beforehand or make efforts to stand up against them when they arrived?
R. Satanov explains - In such a case, "God prepared the medicine of learning through suffering...[learning from suffering] also blunts the pain of the soul...if we dedicate ourselves with all our power to this effort...and still suffer evil under God's watch, then we are still obligated to recognize God's goodness...through the value of [learning through] suffering God gave to us...[since the sufferings] only were created for our good...
- Putting aside the theological problems of God causing suffering for our good, how can we support others thoughtfully when they are suffering?
"Woe to those...who are not trained in [learning from] suffering...
Activity:
Small group discussion, what are 3 ways we can make the value of 'learning from suffering' accessible to us and pursue this value over the next weeks?
Small group discussion, what are 3 ways we can make the value of 'learning from suffering' accessible to us and pursue this value over the next weeks?