"And Aaron was silent": The Righteous Suffer, The Wicked Prosper

"And Aaron was silent" - this was Aaron's response after his two sons, Nadav and Avihu, died on the great and special day of the Tabernacle's inauguration. Through this inner silence, accepting divine judgment with love, he earned prophecy and many blessings. The book Lekach Tov states that this response is expected from every Jew. "Our intellect struggles to find a reason for tragedy, and our hearts ache with terrible loss, but simultaneously, at a deeper level, we sense that beyond our understanding, Hashem has a purpose for our pain. This faith is the silence that Hashem asks of us. How can we develop this inner strength? Perhaps we find a hint in the verse: 'Therefore the wise... will be silent.' Understanding the ways of divine providence and trust in Hashem that all His actions are for good enables us to truly be silent."

No Questions

The genius Chazon Ish expressed a profound insight into the psychological recovery process of people who suffered terrible losses in the Holocaust, in a short, sharp statement:

"Those with faith have no questions; those without faith have no answers!"

The faith the Chazon Ish spoke of is not blind faith without contemplation, but an inner faith stemming from understanding the deep foundations of Jewish existence.

King David suffered greatly, experiencing almost every affliction in the world during his lifetime, and he testified about himself (Psalms 131:2): "Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul [from the word silence], like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me." He was calm and serene like a baby in its mother's arms, all due to his great faith and trust that Hashem watches over him and does everything for his benefit, more than he does for himself.

I Never Asked and Was Never Called...

When the elderly righteous Rabbi Shimon of Yaroslav was asked how he merited such longevity, he would smile slightly and say: Typically, when trouble befalls a person, they become bitter and wonder: Why do I deserve this?! Often they turn to heaven with a heart full of complaints: Why?! Why has this trouble come to me?! And then they are answered from heaven: "Come to us in heaven, and we will explain it to you..." Despite all the terrible troubles that befell me, I never asked, and therefore they did not take me before my time... (Ohel Shimon page 17)

Nothing Bad Comes Down From Heaven

The Talmud states (Pesachim 50a): "The World to Come is not like this world. In this world, for good tidings one says: 'Who is good and does good,' and for bad tidings one says: 'Blessed is the true Judge.' In the World to Come, it will all be 'Who is good and does good.'"

In this world, when a person experiences special joy, they bless with feelings of gratitude "Who is good and does good." In contrast, when great sorrow comes, they accept the judgment with the blessing "Blessed is the true Judge." However, in the World to Come, they will no longer bless "Blessed is the true Judge," but only "Who is good and does good." Why? The Tzlach explains that in the World to Come, when a person looks back at the troubles they had in this world, they will see how beneficial they were, and then understand that even for troubles they should have blessed "Who is good and does good"! What was considered a tragic and bitter event 'in real time' was also solely for the good! For nothing bad comes down from heaven at all, but everything—e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g—is for good.

The Chofetz Chaim regularly said that if something happens to a person, one should never say it is bad, only that it is bitter. Because everything Hashem does, He does for good. But one can say it is bitter, since medicine, even if bitter, can be for a person's benefit. But if one says the event is bad, this contradicts the principle that everything is for good, and additionally embraces falsehood by saying something done for a person's benefit is to their detriment.

The Best Manager

Once, two simple Jews sat before the righteous Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev complaining about their situation. The tzaddik asked them: "How would you conduct yourselves if you were running the world?"

One replied: "I would make it so there were no poor or rich people in the world, but that all people had equal shares." The second said: "I would eliminate all wars and establish peace and tranquility among all nations."

"And I," Rabbi Levi Yitzchak told them, "would do exactly as it is now, with Hashem managing the world, because there is no doubt that all of Hashem's actions are for good, perfect and true, except that we lack the knowledge and comprehension of the heavenly calculations."

The Mosaic

"The judgments of Hashem are true and righteous altogether" (Psalms 19:10) - The Chofetz Chaim says: When can we realize and know that Hashem's judgments are true? Only when we can know the entire system. If we could gather all the information "together," then we would understand how righteous Hashem's judgments are.

Our Sages taught (Berachot 7a): When Moses said to Hashem, "Please show me Your ways," he was asking why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Hashem answered him: A righteous person who suffers may be the child of a wicked person; a wicked person who prospers may be the child of a righteous person. The Midrash tells that at that time, Moses saw from afar a water spring. A tired man came, drank from the spring, and forgot his purse there. Another man came, drank, took the purse, and left. A third man came, drank, and lay down to rest. Meanwhile, the first man returned to look for his purse, saw the third man resting, and demanded his purse back. The third man claimed he knew nothing about it. In his anger, the first man killed him. Moses wondered: Why was this innocent man killed, while the second man escaped and also gained a purse? Hashem told him: You don't know what happened in the past, so you wonder. Know that the father of the first man stole a purse from the father of the second man, and his son (who found the purse) came to inherit his father's inheritance. And the third man who was killed, his father had killed the father of the first man, and the son came and avenged his father's blood. Then Moses's mind was set at ease.

Indeed, only when we understand the complete system can we understand Hashem's governance. What is this comparable to? To an enormous mosaic, which when seen in its entirety provides a clear picture of Hashem's righteous and just governance. But we see only a stone here and a stone there out of thousands of stones! And in these few stones we see, we can glimpse only a little of Hashem's providence over us. But when we merit to see the complete mosaic, visible only to Him, blessed be His name, we will realize how radiant and brilliant it is with the righteousness of His judgments!

The more we think and observe around us, opening our eyes to Hashem's providence over us, the more parts of the divine mosaic of justice of the Creator of the world will be revealed to us, "who manages His world with kindness and His creatures with mercy." And so vast is this mosaic, and so limited is human vision, that we must acknowledge: "For Hashem is in heaven, and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few." (Ecclesiastes 5:1)