Person and says, “I created you with precisely the circumstances that are good for you, but you have all sorts of critiques and conditions and other desires.... You don’t agree with the journey I have ordained for you. Maybe it would indeed have been better not to have created you.”
Rabbi Shimon, on the other hand, completely accepted the enormous challenges in his life. His crystal clarity that precisely this is the way things had to be, and that this is the best thing for him, was incredible—and this is how he became Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai!
Rabbi Shimon’s time in the cave for 13 years was one of excruciating pain, materially and emotionally; he endured unimaginable suffering there. Another person would have felt abandoned by Hashem, distanced from Him during his time of suffering. Yet what did Rabbi Shimon tell his father-in-law, Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, whose tears were falling upon Rabbi Shimon’s open wounds, increasing his suffering even more? Fortunate are you to have seen me this way!”
He was suffering the terrible effects of spending 13 years in the cave, and he was suffering even more as a result of the tears—and he was filled with gratitude! “It was all worth it. I am at the peak of my success!”
Someone who lives with such an attitude is surely worthy of having been created. He has internalized the understanding that Hashem sent him here on a carefully curated journey, and he expresses his satisfaction in the plan. He has gotten on board with every aspect of HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s plan for him.
Hishtadlus in Rabbi Shimon’s View
We know that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai viewed hishtadlus through a unique prism. He held that a person may dedicate himself solely to serving Hashem, and then everything in creation will fall into place in his favor (Berachos 35b). “His work will be done by others,” says Rabbi Shimon. And it is understandable that Rabbi Shimon would hold this way—for when someone has reached the level of נעשה אדם נאמר בעבורך, he is in complete agreement with Hashem’s plan for him in This World, then, surely, he will be accommodated.
