Why Do the Righteous Suffer?

No small question this, and if we put a contemporary spin on it we might rather ask the following:

Why are so many young people being taken from us before they are zoche to leave progeny in their wake?

Why are so many young married women being stricken the dreaded yenne makla?

And why are so many Gedolei Torah being called to their justly deserved reward when we so desperately need their guidance at street level in this world?

The answer, of course, is that we haven’t a clue as to these or any of the other innumerable imponderables that besiege us.

But the Chofetz Chaim does.

Rabbi Yechiel Perr, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Derech Ayson, tells us in the name of Rav Pinchos Shalom Briskman that the Chofetz Chaim z”l was once confronted by his daughter with the very question that we posited above. His son-in-law, who was a big tzaddik and a great talmud chocham, passed away at a very young age and his young widow reminded her father that he had promised that her husband was a great tzaddik and then she asked:

“Tateh, why did he die so young?”

“There are people, answered the Chofetz Chaim, who are equivalent to half the people in the world.  There are others who are equivalent to a third of the world.  And there are still others who are the equivalent to of one quarter of the world’s people.

“What do you want, he asked her?  That the Ribbono Shel Olam should lay waste to half the world?

“Instead He took just one person.”

So why do the righteous suffer anyway?

There are as many reasons as there are permutations of the sufferings in which they are engulfed and we aren’t privy to any of them.

But as the Chofetz Chaim lets us hear, there are times that those sufferings may well beat the alternative.

Hitting the High Note

In EmunahSpeak: From Weak Want to Strong Need we said that the avodah of acquiring true ratzon (desire/will) to get close to Hashem is the root of everything.  And consequently, the beginning of a person’s avodah is to inspire his ratzon more and more.  It’s to change a weak want into a strong need.

And we concluded that only a need that has a laser like penetration of a soul on fire can shift one into gear sufficient to bring him closer to Hashem.

This is moving toward the Deveikus that the Ramchal, right at the very beginning of chapter one of the Mesillas Yesharim, tells us (in the name of Chazal) is the sole purpose for our creation.  

The Ramchal, tracking the teaching of the Tanna, Pinchas ben Yair, outlines a path for us to follow so as to bring our purpose here to fruition with the first stop along the way being that of Watchfulness.  He continues to move us along in an upward trajectory to Holiness which is the culmination of Pinchas ben Yair’s teaching:

Holiness leads to Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) and Ruach HaKodesh leads to the Revival of the Dead.

The Mesillas Yesharim explains that the road to this level of Holiness is paved with much solitude and separation, which, by eliminating the claims upon a person, allows his soul to grow in strength and unite itself with the Creator.

Nice work if you can get it, but what about the rest of us?

It could well be that the most amazing thing about this most amazing of seforim (Mesillas Yesharim) is that the Ramchal (in theory at least) is speaking about the rest of us.

Rabbi Itamar Schwartz tells us in Bilevavi Mishkan Evneh that we shouldn’t be intimidated by the Mesillas Yesharim’s references to solitude, separation and the like.  He explains that sometimes….a person believes and entertains the thought that to cleave to Hashem, one must be as separate from the world as was Moshe Rabbeinu and be completely detached from all matters of this world.

He lets us know that such a thought is a tip off that the Yetzer Hora has us laser locked in its sights and has given us advice for the purpose of distancing us from the Creator.  It seeks to portray closeness to Hashem as something elitist for only the chosen few and way above the pay grade of everyone else.

The aforementioned reference to the methodology of Holiness notwithstanding, the Mesillas Yesharim let’s us know black on white that as regards this exalted level, Hashem is in actuality an Equal Opportunity Employer:

Each person has a path of saintliness suited to him according to his situation.  One who, due to necessity, performs only lowly work, can be a complete saint--just like one whose mouth does not pause from learning.

Rabbi Schwartz explains that it is evident from the words of the Ramchal that one whose deeds are truly for the sake of Heaven, who learns Torah as much as his time and ability will allow, and who works only as needed and only for the sake of Heaven can be a saint who cleaves to his Creator to the extent that he will achieve Ruach HaKodesh and the ability to revive the dead, regardless of his occupation, be it Torah or labor.

Nice work if you can get it, and the Mesillas Yesharim tells us that we can.

Speech is Why We’re Here

  GuardYourSpeak

(In June 2012 we launched GuardYourSpeak which, as its name implies, was dedicated to focusing on all aspects of Shmiras HaLoshon.  In short order it became burdensome to maintain both sites, so in recognition of the fact that the material posted on GuardYourSpeak was a natural fit for EmunahSpeak, it was decided to discontinue GuardYourSpeak and repost all of those pieces on EmunahSpeak over the course of the next few months.)

Although the Gesher HaChaim enumerates no less than thirteen specific attributes that distinguish human beings from animals, the miracle of speech is the gold standard of that distinction, and through it man connects to Hashem by way of Limud Torah and tefillah.

Rabbi Zev Leff informs us that this use of our faculty of speech for the purposes of learning Torah and dialoging with Hashem is not incidental.  At its core, speech is the outward representation of the Neshama and the means by which one manifests his inner kedusha.  

It’s all about bringing out the spiritual potential from our Neshamos through speech by way of Torah and tefillah.  In this way we build the world and infuse it with the energy it needs to exist.

When you crystallize what’s in your mind it coalesces into a thought that subsequently morphs into speech which is invariably a catalyst for action.

Simply put, speech is why we’re here.

Therefore, it follows that a person who takes speech, whose purpose is to give life, and uses it instead to tear down people and the world, is abusing the essence of life and turning it into an agent of death.  Loshon Hora vaporizes a person’s claim to be a human being by destroying that aspect of creation that distinguishes us from the animals.

Is it any wonder then that Rav Leff tells us that Loshon Hora is an act of destruction that he compares to total death?

And do we not also see this in what happened to Miriam when she spoke Loshon Hora against her brother Moshe, and as a consequence thereof all of her skin turned white from tzoras?

Why tzoras?

Whereas Loshon Hora negates a person’s spiritual life and transforms him into a virtual dead person soul wise, a metzorah, whose flesh is covered from head to toe with tzoras, represents the physical mirror image of that rotting soul.

Like we said above, speech is why we’re here. 

And when man puts that faculty of speech into play to create, by uniting man in the service of Hashem, he hits the high note of his purpose in this world.

The Statue of the King

The Torah teaches us that Man is created in the image of Hashem.

Rabbi Avigdor Miller z”l considered this to be one of the most important statements in the Torah and Rabbi Yehuda Litwen drives that point home by explaining that That which constitutes man (his essence) is nothing less than a microcosm of every aspect of how Hashem reveals Himself to the olamos (to all of the worlds).

We are also taught that this image of Hashem is nothing less than a human face which is a direct reflection of Hashem.

It’s the statue of the King.

And as Rabbi Miller z”l explains it, your face is like a screen and your neshama is a projector which projects upon your face the glory of the human soul.  And the human soul contains within it, not so coincidently, the greatness of Hashem because when He breathed into Man He breathed from Himself.

And even though you can reliably take Rabbi Miller’s words to the bank, he would rather that you took them directly to the street to see for yourself how they play out.

He suggests that once a day you should pick a face (men should pick a man’s face and women a woman’s face) and look into it (all the while reminding yourself that you’re seeing the Tzelem Elokim).  If your eyes are open you’ll see nobility expressed in that face.  And a greatness.

How great?

An endless greatness because the truth is that there is nothing in the universe as entrancing and as noble as a human face.

Do it every day, he tells us, and little by little you’ll begin to comprehend this endless nobility that radiates from a face.  And from there it is only a small step to the realization that you are looking at the nobility of the Shechina itself and not far behind that comes a sophisticated understanding of the Gemara’s statement that if A slaps B in the face he slaps the face of HaKodesh Boruch Hu.

The King has given us of Himself and He expects us to exert ourselves to properly maintain that which we have been given.  And to this end the Gemara exhorts us to wash our faces every day.

And as Rabbi Miller z”l was wont to say, when you wash it do it right. 

Have in mind that you’re washing the Statue of the King.

The Satan’s Curve Ball

It seems that Sandy has been brought out of retirement and packed off to Eretz Yisrael for a short gig to officially end the drought that has plagued the country all too long now.

And although we are only mid way through the meteorological riff that is presently playing a few chords of Sandy throughout the length and breadth of Eretz Yisroel, we can already see the quicksand.

It’s all a test for the Eretz Yisraeldike Yidden and for those of us who are the Bnei Sandy.

From the perspective of those whose feet are firmly planted in Eretz HaKodesh the message could be as follows: Pay a little less attention to some of the low budget Mekubalim and other worthies who were wont to make what seemed like endless dire predictions and pronouncements in reference to the import of Meteorological Event Sandy and instead turn your attention to some serious Teshuva of your own.

On the other hand, they are free to see nothing but the rain, snow, and the sand storms.

The bigger test, however, is for the Bnei Sandy.

In EmunahSpeak: A Gut Rehab we said that In the ruins of Long Beach, Belle Harbor, Seagate, and Staten Island, to name but a few of the worst hit areas, Hashem has revealed to us where we go from here. The gut rehab that hundreds of us are doing to all or part of our houses is a moshol for the gut rehab we have to do to ourselves.

You have to become a different you, period.

And we don’t mean doing the Daf, writing a big check for disaster relief, or becoming a regular on the Shemiras HaLoshon Hot Line or at the Ohel Sara Amen Group.

We’re talking Tikkun HaMiddos here as the Mesillas Yesharim understands it. Simply put, in paralleling what we are doing to our houses we have to rip out our gaiva, taiva, kas, and kina and toss it into the dumpster with the sheet rock. 

This is what we have to do, and to that purpose we must stay focused with our eye on the ball so to speak.

Under no circumstances should we be redefining our experience in light of theirs by thinking even for so much as a nanosecond that if the weather can do cartwheels in Eretz Yisrael also, maybe there was no specific lesson to be learned from Sandy after all and that out gut rehab need not be so wrenching.

The Satan is setting us up for a high hanging curve ball.  

On its way to the plate we’ll (think we) see clear as day that the whole Sandy thing was over-hyped and that at the end of the day it wasn’t much more than a pretty bad storm that could happen to about anyone, as can be clearly seen from Sandy Lite now on stage in Eretz Yisrael.  And if that's what we see, we most definitely won’t see the necessity of the great Tikkun HaMiddos that we mentioned in EmunahSpeak: A Gut Rehab.

It's the Satan's curve ball.

Don’t swing at it!

It Depends…

Three days ago we posted EmunahSpeak: From Weak Want to Strong Need and it’s already begging for an update.

The main thrust of what we were saying there was that the avodah of acquiring true ratzon (desire/will) to get close to Hashem is the root of everything.  And consequently, the beginning of a person’s avodah is to inspire his ratzon more and more.  It’s to change a weak want into a strong need.

And what’s a strong need?

By way of example we cited EmunahSpeak: A Burning Need, where we said that Most of us want to learn.  How many need to?  Do you want to help others or do you need to help others?  And then speaking to the very point that we were endeavoring to make in the piece we asked: Would you like (want) to connect Hashem or do you need to connect to Hashem?

Very nice to be sure with the point well made, or at least we thought so at the time.  The truth, however, as we subsequently discovered, is that the defining of a strong need was a touch above our pay grade. The best we could hope to do was to illustrate the proposition in the context of juxtaposition by literally playing off the concept of a weak want against a strong need.

So what else is there to say?

For that we need a Gadol b’Torah whose knowledge of Talmud Bavli can be summed up in two words: ba’al peh (by heart).

Not long after posting EmunahSpeak: From Weak Want to Strong Need, I received an email from Rabbi Yehuda Litwen.

He wrote that “The point you made in EmunahSpeak: From Weak Want to Strong Need is one of the things that separates Gedolei Yisrael from the rest of Klal Yisrael.  On Purim ten years ago in the house of the Gaon, HaRav Moshe Brown shlita, I witnessed the following episode:

“Rav Brown was in no position at the time to make any fundamental distinctions between Mordechai and Haman and everyone was crowded around him (and on top of him!) and one of the chevra is on auto pilot yelling ‘Rebbe, how do you always remember EVERYTHING?

“He responded ‘it depends….

“if you know your life depends on it then you remember it.’”

How strong are your needs?

From Weak Want to Strong Need

As stated in the Mesillas Yesharim, the purpose of life is closeness to Hashem and deveikus (attachment) to Him. 

And we learn in Bilevavi Mishkan Evneh that the avodah of acquiring true ratzon (desire/will) to get close to Hashem is the root of everything. 

So where are you holding in your desire to get close to Hashem?

Are you pumped or do you merely want to get close to Him in much the same way that you want it to be a nice day outside?

Rabbi Itamar Schwartz goes on to tell us that if one does not truly want, but only wants to want, his whole foundation is built (to the extent that it’s built at all) on swamp land courtesy of his weak ratzon.  He may have a ratzon to get close to Hashem, but not it's strong enough to take him out of his comfort zone long enough to break a sweat.

As we said in EmunahSpeak: A Burning Need, wanting is passive and, as such, it’s not wired for tachlis.  If it so happens that that which was wanted actually comes to be, the fruition of that want was not in response to it.  A need, by contrast, is proactive and, by virtue of its fiery nature, it can (and usually does) clear a path for itself.

And so it goes for almost any situation.  Most of us want to learn.  How many need to?  Do you want to help others or do you need to help others?

And anticipating what it takes to come close to Hashem we also asked there:

Would you like (want) to connect Hashem or do you need to connect to Hashem?

The beginning of a person’s avodah is to inspire his ratzon more and more.  It’s to change a weak want into a strong need.

And only a need that has a laser like penetration of a soul on fire can shift one into gear sufficient to bring him closer to Hashem.

It Was All About the Sand

HaRav Avraham Schorr reminds us that after Akeidas Yitzchak, Hashem gave Avraham Avinu the brocha of the stars and the brocha of the sand.

He then asks: “Why did he need the brocha of sand if he had the brocha of stars?  The stars are much greater in numerous ways.”  

In EmunahSpeak: A Gut Rehab we spoke about what our focus should be in the wake of the devastation wrought by Sandy when we pointed out that In the ruins of Long Beach, Belle Harbor, Seagate, and Staten Island, to name but a few of the worst hit areas, Hashem has revealed to us where we go from here. The gut rehab that hundreds of us are doing to all or part of our houses is a moshol for the gut rehab we have to do to ourselves….Simply put, in paralleling what we are doing to our houses we have to rip out our gaiva, taiva, kas, and kina and toss it into the dumpster with the sheet rock.

That’s certainly the way out of the mess in which we find ourselves, but how did we get into it in the first place?

Rav Schorr answers by way of the question he posed above by revealing to us that sand has the midda (attribute) of yira (fear) while the waves have the midda of ahava.  And not so incidentally, sand keeps the waves within their designated boundaries.

And on that score he lets us know that the back story of Sandy is nothing less than a thoroughly soaked inyan of midda keneged midda. 

The basic destruction caused by Sandy happened because the waves of the Yam (sea)went over its boundaries. The sand didn’t stop the Yam because we were missing the midda of yira that is supposed to keep our tumultuous personal yam in check.

And how did we lose our midda of fear?

The word no was removed from our vocabulary vis á vis our indulgence in gashmius as we let our yam run amuck without boundaries.

As we said in EmunahSpeak: Was it Just a Storm? Leaving aside those who were displaced from their homes because Sandy had invaded their actual living space as opposed to their basement or a rental unit, the moshol (that the gut rehab we are doing to our houses is a moshol for what we have to do to ourselves) was apparently a tad north of where most of the rest of us were holding because rather than use the sheet rock etc. as a template for the heavy lifting that a real Tikkun HaMiddos would require, we did the opposite.

We remodeled instead with a better floor (ceramic tile), carpet, appliances, doors and anything else we could get the insurance company and/or FEMA to pay for. 

It’s bad enough that many of us seem to lack understanding as to where we go from here.  But what’s worse, as per our penchant for remodeling and as Rav Schorr makes clear, is that we are even clueless as to how we got here in the first place.

So on the designated Yom HaDin Hashem followed our lead and let the yam devour the sand that was supposed to hold it in check.

It was not for nothing that it was called Sandy.