No Pain, Much Gain Having Our Cake and Eating It
While adversity has a silver lining; G-d’s/our goal is to eliminate pain and adversity and discover growth exclusively through positive experiences. Essay written originally in memory of Susan Wehle a”h and all those who perished during the tragic crash of Continental Flight 3407 on February 12th 2009 in Buffalo, NY
NO PAIN, MUCH GAIN
HAVING OUR CAKE AND EATING IT
A Whole Life
What makes life whole?
The answer is provided for in this week’s parsha.
“You shall serve G-d your G-d, and He will bless your bread and your waters, and I will remove illness from your midst. There will be no miscarriages and barren women in you land; the number of your days I shall make full.”
The simple meaning of the words “the number of your days I shall make full” is that one will live a long life. However, if that was the meaning of these words it should of said “I will lengthen your days” as we find in other verses.
Commentators therefore explain that the term “full” is not only a reference to the quantity of days but to the quality of life that we will enjoy as well. These two verses describe three aspects of life that in their absence one will enjoy a full life. The three components of a full life thus are: a) good health, b) healthy children, and c) ample sustenance.
It is quite obvious that the loss of one of the above can be debilitating and can compromise the quality of life. But, it is equally obvious that there are countless people who suffer from the lack of health, children and sustenance and yet we would be hard pressed to say that their lives are unfulfilled.
On the contrary, we could make the argument that it was precisely the challenges and obstacles that they had to surmount that made their lives more complete. As has been noted in so many Torah sources, adversity has the capacity to reveal latent soul powers. Why then would the Torah connect a full and complete life with one that is without pain and suffering?
Indoctrinated to Accept Suffering as a Necessary Part of Life
One could derive a very powerful lesson from the above in response to our question. All of the suffering that accompanied our long journey through exile has instilled within our collective psyche the belief and recognition that adversity can generate positive energies.
And while we don’t G-d forbid crave pain and suffering, we have learned the hard way that light out of darkness is more powerful than just constant and consistent light.
We have trained our eyes and ears to see the silver lining in an otherwise negative existence. It has become almost axiomatic that Judaism and Jewish existence are synonymous with pain.
Some people feel that the experience of adversity is necessary because it is a fact of life. Others feel guilt when their lives go smoothly. And still others with a more theological bent believe that suffering and pain are necessary to expiate our sins. Based on the Talmud, there are those who assert that suffering in this world gives us greater reward in the next world.
We can go on and on citing different rational, emotional and theological arguments to justify pain and suffering.
Forgotten Philosophy
In fact, we’ve developed such a sophisticated philosophy about pain and suffering that we’ve forgotten an even more powerful belief and recognition that G-d’s scheme for our existence is the abolition of pain and suffering.
The entire world’s creation, The Talmud teaches, is to lead to the Messianic Age. This is the age we have been hoping and praying for from the time we were driven into exile to begin a life of wandering and suffering. Our persistent pleas to G-d was to bring Moshiach at which time there will be no more evil and “all tears shall be wiped away from all faces.”
To paraphrase King Solomon in his book of Koheles, “there is a time to look for the silver lining in the pain” and “there is a time for us to say to G-d—as we do daily in our prayers— bring an end to the Galus and the pain it delivers on a daily basis. Let the heretofore hidden good be visible for all to see. Bring us Moshiach now!”
We will then see that a full life does not have to be punctuated with constant threats to our existence and incessant tragedy. On the contrary, a full life is one where we are permitted, nay encouraged, to have our proverbial cake and eat it too!
Yes, a full life is one where we don’t have to feel guilty that we have it all.
And a full life is one that is blessed with the best in health, children and ample sustenance that parallels the most sublime form of spiritual health and wealth.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Mishpatim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
