Is Thanking For the Suffering Greater Than For the Good?

laitman_628_4Question: It is known that the Sages’ advice regarding the suffering and attitude towards it is that “a person has to be thankful for the bad as well as for the good.” This similar attitude towards the good and the bad looks like masochism.

Answer: First of all, it is important to understand that everything that takes place happens for us to learn something. I grew up in a family of Holocaust survivors.

I saw that children and adults live with this trauma and constantly talk about it at home, within the society, in the city, and still have no idea what to do about this trauma. And yet they continue to live as before, arranging their lives with respect to society and nature according to the natural impulses without any proper calculation.

Question: I have to “be thankful”? I understand the event didn’t happen by chance, so do I still have to learn something?

Answer: What else if not for this; is it good for? For instance, there was a period before the Holocaust or some other shock. During this period, there was something I left undone, so the shock took place. This blow is supposed to teach me how not to allow this to take place, and to change my behavior. What should I change?

I haven’t seen that there was a board of people created since the Holocaust, at least among the Jews, to investigate why this happened to us, and for what reason. No, we only thought about how to get best situated in different places.

If now we’ve reached such a level where we clearly comprehend the purpose of creation, if we understand that we’re in a global, interconnected world, and continue to destroy it with our interconnection, like a cancer leading to death, don’t we provoke the next impact by doing so?

Question: But how does this relate to the personal human suffering?

Answer: A person must wonder why is this happening. Otherwise, one isn’t a man but an animal escaping from danger. Therefore, we can’t escape from life.

I have to investigate how and why evil comes, understand that this force directs me towards good. I need to achieve a balance, to come to bestowal, love, and connection between all. I have to fulfill nature, to correct the evil inclination and make it good. After all, all of nature, except for people, are the power of love and connection.

Imagine that the entire universe and nature are the good force. And only in humanity in a small area does evil nest, so we can fulfill it with a force for good. When we have both good and evil, then we can thank for the evil as well as for the good. And while we still don’t fully learn this and don’t fully fulfill it, nature will continue to send us suffering, literally the suffering of Job.
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