The War
נוֹשֵׂא בְעוֹל עִם חֲבֵרוֹ אבות ו ו
Many people have asked me about feeling the pain of all those wounded and captured people losing spouses and children, Rachana Litzlan, and becoming Yesomim, Hashem Y'racheim. I answered that feeling Tza'ar (distress) for others is very important, and is a big Zechus. There is a story about the Alter of Kelm Zatzal, that his neighbor’s son was taken away from home to be a soldier, Rachana Litzlan, and those days, all the Alter talked about was the plight of his neighbor.
However, if you’re a depressive type, it may be a grave sin and a real Yetzer Hara to start kvetching over all these tragedies! This type of person has one ongoing Avoda – just be B'simcha! This is his whole “religion”, since Hashem has shown him that “being concerned” can lead to serious health issues (depression). R' Moshe Mandel Shlita told me in the name of R' Avigdor Miller Zatzal, that when you see an unfortunate situation, like a man in a wheelchair, you have two jobs.
- One, is to be happy that you’re not in his shoes.
- And two, you are happy for this person, since: הַכ ל לְטוֹבָּה it is all for the very best, and this is actually the very best situation for him, despite all the pain involved, because: כָּל מַאי דְ עָּבֵיד רַחְמָּנָּא לְטַב עָּבֵיד whatever Hashem does, is surely best.
Certainly, it is not advisable to tell this to the person in pain, i.e., that it’s all good for him; he’ll just be upset at you, and he probably will never speak to you again.
