One Who Accepts Yisurim Is Given Life: Submitting Oneself to Hashem’s Will Brings Sweet Life
“The Remedy for Suffering Is Acceptance”
The Ohr HaChaim (Parashas Vayigash) gives us in incredible principle in the area of suffering that comes to a person: סמא דיסורי קבולי, the cure for suffering is the acceptance of the suffering. The remedy for challenges in a person’s life is to accept the difficulties with love, not to try to fight it. This itself is the remedy for those difficulties, the Ohr HaChaim tells us.
He explains that the bondage of Mitzrayim did not begin as long as the “seventy souls who came down to Mitzrayim” were alive—because they had completely accepted the gezeirah of Galus Mitzrayim—whereas Yocheved and Serach bas Asher did live longer, and did endure the galus, because they were brought down by Yaakov Avinu and had not accepted the decree with the same level of acceptance, קבלת יסורים באהבה.
The Bitterness Is Sweetened Through Embracing It
The same applies to every person: The more one embraces the yissurim Hashem has decreed for him, the more one accepts with love that HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows what is best for him, and the more one believes that these challenges are the best thing that could have happened to him, the more these challenges will be remedied. He will not have to endure them, and they will fade away.
This concept is a tremendous avodah, and there are hundreds and thousands of testimonials from people who have tried it; accepting their yissurim b’ahavah, and it worked! Sometimes, the difficulties vanish completely, and in some cases, it ceases to feel as bitter as it did initially. But it is clearly “a force from Above” that responds directly to our acceptance of yissurim, removing the suffering when we accept it. And we must remember and internalize this idea, for it is among the most important concepts in the middas habitachon.
Everything That Hashem Does Is for the Good
The Maharal in Nesivos Olam (Nesiv HaBitachon) discusses the famous story of Rabbi Akiva, who was in a forest outside a city; he had only a candle, a rooster, and a donkey—and each of them was taken away from him. He nevertheless proclaimed, “כל דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד, everything that Hashem does is for the good” (Berachos 60b).
Says the Maharal, “Therefore, Rabbi Akiva said that everything that Hashem does is for the good, to say that he trusts in Hashem that whatever transpired is for his well-being, and expressly because of his bitachon in Hashem, what seemed at first to be bad was transformed into good. [By that night’s end, marauders pillaged the town, and Rabbi Akiva was saved in the stillness of the forest.]
When a Yid declares “כל דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד,” he is proclaiming that he trusts in Hashem: I know that this is from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and that He does only good! He declares this even before he understands how it is good, at a time when he is smarting from the suffering—and this is the definition of trust. “And because he has proclaimed his trust, this very challenge will be transformed into good,” says the Maharal.
Step 1: Even Though I Don’t Understand
The Maharal is telling us that there are two steps to accepting yissurim with love:
The first is to proclaim that everything Hashem does is truly good: כל דעביד רחמנא לטב עביד! “I don’t understand the reason for my suffering, I have experienced only the pain; I don’t have any explanation for it, I have not yet seen the good. Yet I nevertheless accept it with joy—because I trust Hashem with closed eyes. I know that Hashem always does good for me. Even when things seem dark, I nevertheless accept it with love, and I work on my bitachon to trust Hashem.”
Step 2: The Darkness Is Transformed into Light
The second step, the Maharal tells us, is that proclaiming our acceptance will transform what seems like bitterness into sweetness, the darkness into light. It works automatically; the yissurim will soon disappear.
For the moment we work on our bitachon—accepting Hashem’s will with love and willingness—we begin to see revealed kindness.
Eliyahu HaNavi’s Promise: Good in This World and in The Next
There is an incredible Tanna D’Bei Eliyahu Rabbah (Perek 11): “כל המודה ביסורין ושמח בהן, נותנין לו חיים בעולם הזה ולעולם הבא שאין להם סוף, One who agrees to/ gives thanks for his yissurim in This World and rejoices in them, is given life in This World and in the Next World without end.” One doesn’t merely receive a reward for his bitachon in the Next World; one merits a good life in This World as well.
This is the great principle of bitachon: In the moment that one becomes tethered to HaKadosh Baruch Hu with the belief and with the trust that it is good—even when we don’t know how and why—then one becomes a בוטח בה', for which we assured that חסד יסובבנו, lovingkindness will surround him in both worlds. If one toils for his bitachon ̧ he will gain in This World and in the Next.
