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8 Av 5759 - July 21 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
They Act in Love and Are Content With Suffering
by L. Jungerman

"And you shall love Hashem your G-d . . . with all your means (bechol me'odecho)' -- with every measure He metes out to you" (Chazal).

The word me'od, exceedingly, in great measure, generally serves to emphasize the unique. When we seek to stress that we are not talking about "good" in the usual sense, or "great, big," in normal terms, we say tov me'od, good indeed, or godol me'od, exceedingly large.

The word rarely assumes a noun form, however, as it does here, as a capacity.

The Meshech Chochmah infers that one must learn how to utilize one's love for Hashem to its fullest, to exploit it for the good. One must use not only the simple innate characteristics, but also those special, unique kochos hanefesh that are shared by mankind and not by other living creatures.

We see that animals are also capable of love and hatred: they all love what is beneficial for them and favor whoever provides these benefits. Good and bad, however, is defined by them only in pragmatic terms of the present: what is pleasant and palatable right now, not what is beneficial for the future.

Man is different. Man is capable of projecting his inborn capacity for affection and esteem, which he shares with other creatures, and developing them with regard to the future and future welfare. Good and bad are not necessarily what is pleasant right now, but what can be beneficial in the future.

This capacity is the me'od of man. The Torah commands us to love Hashem with all our means, our might, our power of faith in the goodness of the future.

*

Man is surrounded by suffering in all forms. And he asks himself how he can contend with it. How can he cling to his love for Hashem even when faced by hardship? How can he relate to the "rod" that strikes him as "his comfort," as Dovid Hamelech did ["Shivtecho umishantecho, heimo yenachamuni"]? A punishing rod (shivtecho) and a supporting cane (mishantecho) are far from synonymous. But their end purpose is the same, to make us love Hashem.

The Torah teaches and trains us to "Love Hashem your G-d with all your might/means." In order to withstand a test and to check if we truly love Hashem with every measure meted out to us, we must embrace the trait of me'od in our human makeup. We must utilize our ability to project into the future and think in long range terms, for then we will be able to relate to our suffering with real love and gratitude, as well, for we will know that our tribulations actually incorporate future happiness. "For the sake of punishing you and testing you in order to benefit you in the end."

Suffering cleanses sins. Troubles purify the soul. They draw a person closer to eternal goodness while the principal remains intact for the World to Come.

It is very difficult to sustain suffering in the present, to bear it, but man is capable of appreciating and loving what he knows is ultimately good for him, even if it is not exactly palatable in the present. His entire future takes on a different tone through his suffering. The Gaon of Vilna said: "Were it not for suffering, we would not find our hands and feet [we wouldn't be able to manage] in Olom Haboh."

It is true that few can fully appreciate the role and benefit of suffering to the extent that our saintly tanoim did, when they exclaimed to their yissurim, "Come, my dear ones, come my dear ones" (as is related in Brochos). All this is in the present, but after the trials are done and gone, we can see them in a different light of hindsight. A person must train himself to feel a strong bond of love to his suffering, to recognize in them heavenly vehicles, holy emissaries to blaze him a trail to the World to Come. He must regard them as antipollutants, purifiers that prepare his soul for eternal life and reward.

Maran HaRav Yisroel Yaakov Kanievsky zt'l wrote, "Suffering is dear; it is the success and the great and awesome happiness in eternal matters. This is why one must rejoice in having experienced past suffering and having overcome it, for this is a pure profit whose value we cannot begin to imagine. It is one of Hashem's immeasurable forms of kindness."

*

How difficult it is. We all pray not to be subjected to trials. But life is full of vicissitudes, strewn with hurdles and pitfalls, ups and downs, situations that seem favorable and others that don't. Our task is to love Hashem through thick and thin, in everything that is meted out to us, what appears to be good and what seems to be difficult. We remind ourselves of it twice daily so that we can persevere in "Love Hashem . . . with all our might."

The Torah does not only command us in it, it also guides and directs us. "I am Hashem Who instructs you, to benefit you from your way, in the way you must pursue." The fortitude to withstand a test and to grapple with it can be drawn -- so counsels the Torah -- from an outlook of foresight, a glimpse or projection into the future. And the future is a promising one.


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