Responding To Suffering

MyLife Essay Contest

How does God expect us to respond to suffering?

According to the Chassidic doctrine of hashgacha pratis, it would seem that everything that happens to us is the will of God, and, by extension, a good thing. But is this really so?

The following essay explores the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s teachings to shed light on the true nature of suffering and the appropriate response to it.

All of us aspire to live happy lives. Lessons on the nature of happiness and how to attain it abound in Chassidic literature; happiness is a monolith in Chassidic ideology and way of life. Yet for many, it is elusive.

The founding father of Chassidus, the Baal Shem Tov, taught that the key to lasting happiness lies in our ability to see below the surface of everything – to see the ‘soul’ of the universe, and not merely the ‘body.’¹ In a society such as ours, where short-lived materialism is revered above matters of God and spirit, this task is challenging at the best of times. When tragedy strikes, it becomes nigh impossible.

Upon discovering, for example, that your pen has leaked through your favorite jacket, you have locked yourself out of your car, and your boss has sent you a message saying that your attendance at work is no longer required – all on the same day – the notion of ‘looking at things below the surface’ may well seem irrelevant.

How are we to respond to life’s setbacks?

Among his many teachings, the Baal Shem Tov redefined the traditional concept of hashgacha pratis – loosely translated as “Divine micromanagement” – which shaped the Chassidic approach to understanding God’s relationship with the world and how to perceive negative events.

Whereas previously it had been understood that God micromanages the lives of humans alone – and only to a degree that is commensurate to their righteousness – the Baal Shem Tov taught that all creations, regardless of shape or form or how spiritually attuned they are, are micromanaged by God. Every single event in the universe is ordained by Him and has a Divine purpose.²

But dismissing every negative occurrence as ‘hashgacha pratis’ can quickly become tiring – and it can be perceived as being somewhat insensitive. This is especially so when somebody finds themselves overwhelmed with despair after a truly unspeakable tragedy. Are we really to believe then that suffering is the Divine will of God, and by extension, a good thing? Does human suffering really have a Divine purpose?

These questions mercilessly gnawed at the back of my mind until I discovered a sicha – a talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe – that radically changed my understanding of hashgacha pratis as the Baal Shem Tov taught it.³

The Talmud tells us of two remarkable personalities who reacted to misfortune with incredible faith in God. The first was a sage known as Nachum “Ish Gam Zu.” His sobriquet was earned by dint of his habit of saying, regarding every occurrence in his life – both good and bad – “Gam zu letovah. This, too, is for the good.” The second sage was Rabbi Akiva (a star student of Nachum Ish Gam Zu) who would respond to misfortune by saying, “Everything that God does is for the good.”

The key difference between the two, explains the Rebbe, is that while Nachum Ish Gam Zu was so unfazed by negative events that he was able to say about each one, “This is for the good,” Rabbi Akiva’s response was more sober. He declared as a matter of principal that “everything that God does is for the good,” but stopped short of actually pointing to any specific misfortune and saying, “This is for the good.” Despite God’s ultimate plans, he viewed each negative event in isolation – as something painful, rather than something ‘good.’ He lacked the extraordinary optimism that was the hallmark of his teacher Nachum.

The Rebbe provides a possible historical reason for this: Nachum Ish Gam Zu lived during (or by some accounts, very close to) the end of the Second Temple period, at a time when the world still enjoyed relative spiritual enlightenment and revealed Godliness. Rabbi Akiva, by contrast, was of the following generation, which saw the Temple’s destruction and the Jewish nation’s subsequent exile. He was thus intimately familiar with the challenges of exile and the struggle to find Godliness – the ‘soul’ of the universe – at a time when it was concealed.

The underlying message in the Rebbe’s words is clear: In today’s spiritual Dark Age, when a man like Nachum Ish Gam Zu would likely be considered dangerously delusional rather than a paradigm of happiness, we can look to Rabbi Akiva – the layman-turned-scholar, the people’s rabbi – and react to our failures and misfortunes by emulating his brand of faithful realism: believing in God and the notion of hashgacha pratis on the one hand, but recognizing that not everything need be labeled ‘good’ on the other.

When we adopt this mindset, the feelings that inevitably accompany life’s ups and downs are fully validated. Rather than being swept under the proverbial rug of hashgacha pratis, our pain is confronted and acknowledged for what it is. Pathways to recovery are opened. Emotions are channeled into action. Broken hearts are mended. Valuable lessons are learnt.

Regardless of whether we ever see God’s plan or not (and often we do not), we can hope to move past our negative experiences in a healthy, therapeutic fashion and allow ourselves to gain a sense of closure and a state of happiness.

Rabbi Akiva’s approach, as illuminated by the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and the Rebbe, teaches us a powerful lesson not only in dealing with our own suffering, but also in compassionately responding to the suffering of others.

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