One of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach’s, zt”l, grandchildren said about his grandfather, “A Rosh Yeshivah once came to see my grandfather, and complained that he was living a life of Gehenom, and that his life was very difficult. He said that my grandfather’s life was a life of Gan Eden, but his was Gehenom.
Rav Shlomo Zalman didn’t respond to this, but he listened, and was sympathetic and gave him support and Chizuk.”
After he left, Rav Shlomo Zalman told his grandson the following, “It appears that Hashem gave me a life of Gan Eden, and him a life of Gehenom. But that’s not true! He is making his life into Gehenom! It all depends on how you view your surroundings.
“By living with Hashem, you see things in a different way. This was not decreed on him. It is what he is decreeing on himself. He is the one responsible for making himself so miserable. It’s really up to you,” continued Rav Shlomo Zalman. “You can make your life a Gan Eden on this world, or you can make this place a Gehenom!”
Reprinted from the Parshas Beshallach 5784 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
