To reinforce this concept, let us turn to another story in the Gemara (Ta’anis 24a).
Rabbi Yosi of Yokrat had a daughter of extraordinary beauty. One day, he noticed a man digging beneath the hedge that enclosed his courtyard, trying to catch a glimpse of her.
Rabbi Yosi called out, “What are you doing?”
The man replied: “Rabbi, since I am unworthy to marry your daughter, at least let me look at her. I made this small hole only so I could gaze upon her.”
Rabbi Yosi then said to his daughter, “My child, you are bringing others to stumble! Return to your dust.” Rabbi Yosi ruled it would be better for her to die and return to the earth from which man was formed rather than be the cause of sin. And indeed, so it was.
The Maharsha asks: if Rabbi Yosi saw that his daughter’s beauty was causing others to stumble, why did he not simply daven that she lose her beauty? Why did he have to daven for her death? He answers that one may not daven for such a thing.
In light of what we have explained, Rabbi Yosi’s response becomes clear. He understood that his daughter’s mission in life was intertwined with the special beauty that Hashem had granted her. Without it, she could not fulfill her Divine purpose. But once it became clear that this very gift was turning into a stumbling block, and her mission could no longer be realized, he davened that her soul return to its source. To live without fulfilling the task for which one was created is pointless living.
