When Experiencing Suffering, One Must Contemplate Why
The Chofetz Chaim in Shemiras HaLashon explains the pesukim of the dialogue between Moshe Rabbeinu and Hashem when Moshe was being sent to Mitzrayim to take out Klal Yisrael. HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells Moshe, “What is this in your hand?” And Moshe answered, “A stick.” Hashem told him to throw the stick to the ground, and it was transformed into a snake.
Rashi explains that by making the stick turn into a snake, Hashem was telling Moshe that he engaged in the actions of the snake by speaking lashon hara about Klal Yisrael. This was an admonishment to Moshe Rabbeinu.
Says the Chofetz Chaim, “From here we see that in the area of lashon hara and rechilus, a person is punished in This World (soon after committing the act).” When a person finds himself in a problematic situation, it should not be difficult to find the source. A person should look at his immediate actions, in the hours before his suffering came to him, for the key to his problems. Did he speak lashon hara or otherwise antagonize another person? “We don’t need to find a distant reason for our suffering,” says the Chofetz Chaim. “In most cases it is very clear (just as we find by Moshe Rabbeinu with the snake).”
Embracing the Causes of Our Challenges
Continues the Chofetz Chaim: HaKadosh Baruch Hu told Moshe Rabbeinu “grab the snake by the tail.” With this, Moshe was being told, “Don’t run away from the problem! Come closer to the difficulty and embrace it!” Often, people seek to escape their problems, preferring not to think about them. At best, they will daven for the problems to disappear. But Hashem says: You must embrace the cause of the problem! Grab the challenge by the tail! Understand why it happened, why Hashem sent you this challenge.
Once a person has faced and embraced the challenge, once he fulfills the command of אחוז בזנבו, to grab it by the tail, then the challenges will disappear. And indeed, this is what happened with Moshe Rabbeinu. As soon as he seized the nachash, it immediately turned back into a stick—the problem disappeared, transformed into good.
When one is truly מקבל the yissurim b’ahavah, he will immediately see that they will ease. Simply proclaiming “עביד כל דעביד רחמנא לטב” can have an incredible impact on the heart of a person, and then things are transformed for the good.
Trusting the Judge: Rabbi Eliezer Is Spared from the Executioner
The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 16b) tells of the time that Rabbi Eliezer was caught by the authorities and accused of studying Torah. He was taken to a tribunal for judgment, and the officer challenged the great sage, saying, “An old and wise man like you should be engaged in such frivolous matters.?!” Rabbi Eliezer responded simply, “I trust the judge.”
Rabbi Eliezer was obviously referring to the True Judge, and he meant that he has no complaints towards Hashem. But the officer understood his words to refer to himself. He said, “Since you have placed your trust in me, and you have accepted my judgment, you are hereby acquitted.”
When One Accepts the Decree, the “Prosecutors” Disappear
With this Gemara, the Shem MiShmuel underscores the above-mentioned principle that when a Yid accepts the decree, he is soon rid of it completely. “If one has temimus and he accepts the Heavenly decree, all the Heavenly prosecutors disappear.”
When Rabbi Eliezer said, “I trust the judge” he was accepting the Heavenly judgment. Thus, he was instantly freed from the decree! (The Chofetz Chaim, in the aforementioned comments on Moshe Rabbeinu, also cites this Gemara to support this idea: קבלת יסורים באהבה frees a person from the suffering and pain).
The Greater the Bitachon, The Sweeter It Will Become
These sefarim hakedoshim all point to the same idea: When a Yid works on accepting Hashem’s decree with love, he removes the dinim from himself. That is because through bitachon in Hashem, the levushim and barriers are removed from the shefah, and it is able to reach the person properly.
But one must know that there are many madreigos, levels, in kabbolas yissurim b’ahavah. A person may mouth the words דעביד רחמנא לטב כל עביד, but his heart is not wholly in agreement with it. At the end of the day, he is flesh and blood, and the suffering hurts. And so, there are different levels in acceptance. Every time a Yid works on himself in this regard, he reaches new levels in קבלת יסורים באהבה.
Every Yid is on some level of accepting yissurim and of having bitachon. And when one contemplates thoughts of emunah and bitachon, he grows in his levels of bitachon. Even when a person falls from a previous level of bitachon, he doesn’t lose his bitachon entirely; rather, he must strengthen himself and move forward. The greater a person’s acceptance of the yissurim, the sweeter the shefah will become.
Another Spoon of Sugar
When a person sweetens their coffee with sugar, levels of sweetness can be added... one spoon of sugar, or two, or three. So too, the challenges in our lives can be sweetened to various degrees. The troubles of a person are resolved in accordance with how close the person became to Hashem.
The Ohr HaChaim and the Maharal mentioned above are teaching us that when things don’t go as we wish and we nevertheless proclaim that “everything that Hashem does is for the good,” we have now ascended a level in bitachon, thereby adding a spoonful of sugar into the bitter coffee.
If a person sings in praise to Hashem for these yissurim, it is akin to placing two spoons of sugar into the coffee—making it even sweeter.
If a person repeats it over and over, even though he is suffering immensely, even if it’s an excruciating experience, but he nevertheless strengthens himself with bitachon, he has now put in three spoons of sugar!
And the levels continue, higher and higher.
More Bitachon Brings More Yeshuos
The results are not always instantaneous. It doesn’t always happen that a person says the words כל דעביד רחמנא and sees an immediate yeshuah—although this can happen, too.
But in many cases, when the challenges are complex, a person must steadily increase his bitachon and strengthen himself in it, repeating words of emunah and bitachon and listening to words of chizuk from others. From all of these things, one becomes closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and a greater ba’al bitachon who merits חסד יסובבנו, being surrounded by loving-kindness.
