Imagine a person who lives with total peace and serenity. In summertime he isn’t hot, in the winter he doesn’t suffer from dryness. The key in his pocket is always the right one for any door, and he never forgets it. His clothing has never torn, and never did he lose a document. He has a private driver who is constantly at his beck and call, and he never gets stuck in traffic. Everyone always smiles to him, and the chazzan never sang off-key in his presence. The seat he sits on is always comfortable and pleasant. His shalom bayis is amazing, his children’s shidduchim are all grade-A perfect, and he has no idea what debt feels like. He always has cash on hand and never needs the aid of gemachim. No neighbor ever bothers him and no one ever makes him angry. He has never experienced shame and embarrassment. He is healthy and fresh day and night, and he has nachas from all his offspring, without any exceptions. He is the owner of luxury furnished apartments, and he sleeps deeply for a third of every day. He never tires and never sweats. The doctor doesn’t limit his eating habits or instruct him to refrain from drinking diet soft drinks. He dreams only sweet and pleasant dreams and doesn’t support any pharmacy. In short: He lives Gan Eden in the physical world.
Of course, we don’t know anyone who matches the above description. Our good Father sends us all some sort of pain or difficulty from time to time, some sort of problem, insult or loss, and all of this is a result of His great mercies, so that we are zocheh to kapparah for our sins! As Rabi Yishmael says in Maseches Arachin (16b), “Anyone for whom forty days passed without yissurin has received his [share in the] World [to Come.]” That is how we were raised, and this is what Rabbenu Bachyai teaches us in Chapter 4. If a Yid meets up with “those who seek to harm him” – and this could be the traffic cop who writes him a ticket or a neighbor who constantly harasses him – either way, a Yid who strengthens himself in bitachon knows that the person who causes him harm is only a messenger. He is not the true cause of all the difficulty. Therefore, he will attempt to solve the problem properly: He will remember in his heart that all things, both good and seemingly bad, come from the Hands of the Creator, and he will beg and plead with Him to atone for his sins.
In general, difficulties and yissurim have one goal: to purify the nefesh and to bring a person closer to his Creator. Let’s take the example of someone who is sick, R”l. He must do hishtadlus to get better, but at the same time, he should do things in the spiritual realm. The Sefer Hachareidim states that if a person succeeds in rebuking someone who is ill and bringing him closer to the correct way, his reward is very great. Regarding such a person it says, “Fortunate is he who knows how do act wisely toward the poor person,” and, “when bad things occur, Hashem will save him.” This passuk applies to both of them – to the ill person, who in the merit of the rebuke will be saved and will live and will have it good in this world and in the Next, and also to the person who rebuked him — for this great mitzvah will stand by him eternally.
However, not every person can do this mitzvah. This is one of the most difficult things to do properly – to approach an ill person who is suffering and in pain and to arouse him to good deeds. Only an expert can do this, and all the rest should continue their crucial job of encouraging, supporting, and trying in any way they can to make it easier for the ill person.
When the ill person is healed, it is a tremendous simchah. Chazal say: An ill person does not recover from his illness unless all his sins have been forgiven (Nedarim 41a). Why are we mentioning this here? It is to help us internalize what we know: that every difficulty or pain we experience in this world has its source in a spiritual blemish. Perhaps this seems difficult to absorb, but the good news is that yissurim indeed “scrub away the dirt,” and clean and repair one’s neshamah.
Although we discussed a person who rebukes specifically an ill person, this principle applies to every type of difficulty and to all yissurim, even the smallest kind. As Chazal taught (Arachin 16b), there are many instances that can be considered forms of yissurim. For example, it could happen that someone had a garment sewn, and it does not fit him properly, or that someone wanted to pour hot water and got cold water instead, and even if his garment turned inside out as he was trying to put it on, or if he placed his hand in his pocket to take out three coins and two came out, and he had the added exertion of returning his hand to his pocket once again in order to get another coin... If we utilize these opportunities and think to ourselves: Our all-merciful Father did this, and He sent this inconvenience my way as an atonement for my sins, then these small yissurim will be enough to arouse us, and to sweeten the din, and through this we will come close to Him.
We daven and hope to be zocheh to see Hashem’s revealed chassadim, with physical and spiritual health, in great joy; amen.
