Every Shabbos, the Baal HaTanya zt'l would serve as the baal korei in his beis medresh, to read the parashah of that week. One week, the Baal HaTanya was travelling, so someone else read the Torah in his beis medresh. It was parashas Bechukosai, and the Mittele Rebbe (the Baal HaTanya's son) fainted. When he awoke, he said, "The tochachah! The tochachah! I never heard the tochachah like this before! When my father reads the tochachah, I hear only brachos, and I don't hear any curses at all."
How can it be that the exact words can be a brachah and a curse? When the Baal HaTanya read the tochachah, the Mittele Rebbe heard brachos, and when another person read the same words, he heard curses. How can that be?
This is because blessings and curses largely depend on how one perceives them. When you believe that everything Hashem gives you is for the good, you see everything as a blessing. Even the tochachah is a blessing. When one forgets this truth, many things can appear to be a curse.
We can compare this concept to a solar eclipse. When there is a total eclipse, the sun is entirely covered by the moon, and the world goes dark. But usually, the eclipse isn't complete. Perhaps it is slightly darker on Earth, but it goes almost unnoticed. Most people don't realize that it is darker. The sun shines brightly in areas the moon didn't cover, and the world is bright.
Furthermore, even during a total eclipse, it is unsafe to gaze at the sun. The sun shines brightly wherever the moon isn't. Nevertheless, one can look at the eclipse when wearing special dark glasses.
We can learn a great lesson from this. A person should focus on Hashem's kindness. Hashem is constantly bestowing His kindness upon us; even when there are hardships in his life, he almost shouldn’t see them. They go unnoticed due to his focus on the good he enjoys.
Furthermore, as we explained, even the hardships are Hashem's kindness, only they are concealed. And when one focuses on all the revealed good, he enjoys in life, he almost doesn't know about the hardships.
However, like at an eclipse, if a person puts on dark glasses and focuses on the troubles, he will see the eclipse – he will see his problems. But when he removes the black glasses and focuses on the good, he will see Hashem's brachos and kindness, and he won't feel the darkness at all.
This week's parashah discusses the mitzvah of בהמה מעשר, tithing the animals that were born that year, to bring them as a korban. It states (27:32) ֶׁראֲש כֹּל וָצֹאן בָּקָר מַעְשַׂר וְכָל 'לה ׁק ֹּדֶש יִה ְיֶה הָעֲש ִׂירִי ָּׁבֶטהַש תַּחַת יַע ֲבֹר, "Any maasar of cattle or flock of all that pass under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Hashem."
Rashi writes, "When one comes to tithe them, he lets them out [of the pen] through the gate, one by one, and he strikes every tenth animal with a rod painted with red dye, so that it is identifiable as the tithe. So he must do with every year’s lambs and calves."
One may ask, why do we not color the other nine sheep and leave the tenth one clean? This would also be a way to identify and keep separate the maasar animals! Furthermore, why was it necessary to "hit" the animal with red dye (as Rashi writes, מכה והעשירי, "he hits every tenth animal")? Why can't he paint the animals calmly, without striking them?
The Ostrovtzer Gaon zt'l answered, "The Torah is teaching us that it is always this way. Someone who is a 'לה ׁק ֹּדֶש, holy for Hashem, he is hit, he endures yesurim and tzaros, and through these problems, he grows and becomes even holier" (Beis Meir, Likutim).
The "maasar animal" walks around and wonders, "Why is my portion worse than all other animals? They are all well, and nothing bad happened to them, while I was hit with a stick, and I didn't do anything wrong!" The animal asks this question solely because it is an animal. If it had intelligence, it would recognize that this "potch" made it holy, 'לה ׁק ֹּדֶש. It isn't worse than the others, on the contrary, it merited to rise to high levels.
Therefore, let us not be like shortsighted animals, and let us understand that every wound and problem has an immense goodness in it; with them, we become more kadosh.
The Steipler zy'a (Kryna d'Igarta vol.1 10) writes, "Whoever is more fitting to be a great gadol in Torah, he endures more hardships. When he is strong and grabs onto the Tree of Life (the Torah), the yesurim will eventually leave him."
It is known that וְה ָיָה is an expression used for happy occasions. וּת ְמוּר ָתוֹ means the exchange, which can mean the exchange and the opposite of good occasions. It states (27:10) .ׁק ֹּדֶש יִה ְיֶה וּת ְמוּר ָתוֹ הוּא וְה ָיָה The Divrei Yisrael explains that the pasuk is saying הוּא וְה ָיָה וּת ְמוּר ָתוֹ, whether Hashem leads you in a manner of happiness, with revealed kindness, or whether Hashem leads you in the opposite, exchanged manner – which means you go through hardships – either way, יִה ְיֶה ׁק ֹּדֶש, you should act in a holy manner. This is because you believe everything is b'hashgachah pratis, for your good. You aren't upset and angry with your portion, no matter what, because you believe it is for your good.
The Divrei Yisrael concludes, "When one believes that everything is good, he will merit to see that it is so. The pasukim hint to this because it states (27:14) טוֹב בֵּין ה ַכֹּהֵן וְהֶע ֱרִיכוֹ יָקוּם כֵּן ה ַכֹּהֵן אֹתוֹ יַע ֲרִ יךְ ֶׁרכַּאֲש רָע וּב ֵין, "The kohen shall evaluate it whether good or bad. As the kohen evaluates it, so shall it be." The Zohar (vol.1 150a) states that kohanim represent the attribute of chesed. The pasuk is saying ה ַכֹּהֵן וְהֶע ֱרִיכוֹ, a person should measure and know, רָע וּב ֵין טוֹב בֵּין, regardless of whether his life appears good or bad, he believes ה ַכֹּהֵן, that it is Hashem's chesed. ה ַכֹּהֵן אֹתוֹ יַע ֲרִ יךְ ֶׁרכַּאֲש, if he will believe that it is chesed, יָקוּם כֵּן, he will merit to see the chesed that is there.
Following the Divrei Yisrael's lesson, we can also explain, וְה ָיָה, the greatest joy is וְה ָיָה וּת ְמוּר ָתוֹ הוּא, is when one believes that whatever happens to him, the good and the exchange, they are all for his good. No one is happier than the person who believes that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is leading him with kindness. How much distress and pain, heartache and anger, are avoided when one believes this with emunah peshutah.
