The Purpose of Suffering, Part 2

Rabbi Huna taught: “‘Behold, it was good’ — this refers to the attribute of goodness. ‘Behold, it was very good’ — this refers to the attribute of suffering.” Is suffering truly ‘very good’? Indeed it is — for through it, people are brought to eternal life. (Bereishit Rabbah 9:5)

Shlomo Hamelech expressed the same idea: “And the path of life is through the discipline of reproof.” (Mishlei 6:23) If you wish to know which path leads a person to eternal life, it is the path of suffering, when accepted with faith.

“Moshe’le, Pray for Me!”

Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch recounts that as a young man, he once visited his teacher, the great Rabbi Mordechai, who was gravely ill and in great pain. When the rabbi saw him, he said softly: “Moshe’le, pray for me.”

Rabbi Sternbuch asked, “What should I pray for?”

The rabbi replied: “Pray that I should merit to receive in this world all the punishment that I deserve — so that when I arrive in the World to Come, my soul will be pure and clean.”

A few days later, the rabbi asked him again, “Moshe’le, did you pray for me?”

He answered, “No… I want the rabbi to have peace and comfort, not more suffering.”

The rabbi smiled gently and said: “Moshe’le, you don’t understand. I, too, only want good for myself. But what is the true good? To enter the next world pure and cleansed of sin — that is the ultimate good! Please, pray that I receive it all here, so I may go there clean and untainted.”

“Anything But Katorga!”

Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach once told of a man who lived in the Russian city of Slutsk, known as a man of deep faith who suffered greatly but accepted all his suffering with joy.

He would often explain his attitude with the following parable: In Soviet Russia, there was a notorious labor camp called Katorga, infamous for its brutal cold, backbreaking labor, and inhuman conditions. Anyone sentenced there begged desperately to be sent anywhere else — even to Siberia — just not to Katorga.

If the authorities granted his plea and sent him to Siberia instead, he would rejoice despite the hardships, knowing he had been spared something far worse.

“So too,” the man would say, “our suffering in this world spares us the far greater suffering of Gehinnom (purgatory). If we only knew what spiritual agony truly means, we would rejoice at every pain in this world, for it purifies us and saves us from judgment in the next.”

“Just a Little More Suffering…”

A man once came to the great Kabbalist Rabbi Shalom Sharabi (the Rashash), weary from a lifetime of pain. He had suffered illness, loss, poverty, and endless hardship. “Why must I endure so much?” he pleaded.

While waiting to see the rabbi, he fell asleep in the reception room — and dreamed.

In his dream, he was brought to Heaven and saw a vast plain filled with angels — some radiant and white, others dark and terrifying. Each angel entered a pair of giant scales: the white ones on the right, the black ones on the left.

He was told: “These angels are the deeds of a person. Every mitzvah creates a shining angel; every sin, a dark one. Now you are being judged — this is your own soul’s trial.”

As he watched in terror, the scales tipped heavily toward the side of guilt. Then a heavenly voice called out: “Has this man suffered in his life?”

“Yes!” came the reply.

Immediately, an enormous host of angels appeared — bright and glorious — formed from the man’s years of suffering. They were placed on the right side of the scale, each one outweighing several dark angels. Slowly, the balance began to shift.

But then it stopped — the scales were still slightly tipped to the side of guilt. Desperate, the man screamed from the depths of his soul: “Give me more suffering! More suffering — so I may be cleansed!”

At that very moment, he awoke in terror, shouting aloud. When the rabbi’s family rushed to him, he said simply: “There’s no need to speak to the rabbi anymore. I have already received my answer from Heaven.”

The Chofetz Chaim’s Teaching

The Chofetz Chaim quoted an ancient teaching passed down from the Vilna Gaon: “Were it not for suffering, we would not find our way in this world at all.”

When a person dies, his soul is weighed on heavenly scales — mitzvot on one side, sins on the other. If the balance tilts toward guilt, a heavenly voice calls: “Where are the sufferings he endured in life?”

Then, all his earthly pain, tears, illnesses, and losses appear — each one a blazing angel of light — and they rush to the side of merit. The scales tilt, and the person is declared righteous.

At that moment, the soul thanks God for every hardship it ever endured, seeing now that each moment of pain was a step toward eternal joy.

Finding Meaning in Suffering

Rabbi Avraham Grodzinski summarized it perfectly: “If a person understands the purpose of his suffering and uses it to examine his ways and repent, there is no limit to how greatly his sins can be forgiven. Even the smallest pain can atone for the gravest wrongs.”

Suffering is not punishment, but purification. It is not cruelty, but compassion. It is not meaningless, but the hidden doorway through which the soul ascends to its highest truth: “Behold, it was very good.”