Suffering in This World

Question

If G-d appears to be devising intricate tortures for me, should I try to disengage emotionally from the tribulations I can’t seem to stop from happening, since the tribulations are pain enough without negative emotions? I feel those torments are worse when I let them bother me emotionally, and I can weaken their impact a bit by turning the emotions off and cultivate an emotional numbness in the face of them; in that way I can at least to some extent weaken these torments’ power over me.

For example, if in my poverty, where money is very scarce, it might happen that no matter what I try to do to protect my $20 bill, I will see a giant gust of wind tear it from my grasp and be carried on that wind into the window of a speeding Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, or Bentley, forcing me to take the bus (which I might have to wait three hours for because of a bus strike that day, only for the bus to finally break down), and this exact thing might happen 5 days in a row, no matter how I try to hold onto my money. So if this happens day after day after day (only the make of the car whose window receives my money changing, between the aforementioned 3 brands, well, maybe a Bugatti thrown in the mix), should Ilet myself be upset, so I have the negative emotions on top of the tsoris of all my transportation money being swept away into luxury automobiles, to the point that not only can’t I get around, I have no money to pay my bills or eat? In that scenario, I might daven for it to stop, then some banking fluke similarly transfers the tiny bit of money I have to the owners of those automobiles, in such a way that there’s no recourse to get it back, as if orchestrated from above in a miracle. Then, as I daven for relief, some similar calamity occurs exacerbating the problem.

Can or should I say, these assaults seeming to inflict poverty on me from above, in such a way forcing me to observe the small amounts of money I can scrounge together, being sent on the wind into these $250,000+ vehicles, have the effect of making life torture for me, a torture compounded by seeing the path and destination of the money.

While it’s possible to praise HaShem for the obvious generosity toward those luxury car-owners of sending my electricty bill and food money toward them, right in front of my eyes, should I decline to praise that kindness and also try to numb myself to this predicament’s emotional impact? Should I take it as a sign that HasShem wants me to give everything I have to the already wealthy, so that my money, which would only be 1 in 10 million drops in this wealthy person’s bucket, is better being that person’s 10 millionth + 1 drop in his bucket rather than mine? Should I say, “fine, I can accept losing my money this way, but I won’t have that torment compounded by emotional grief?”

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Answers

  1. Personally, I think that the best option is to daven to Hashem and to tell Him that it is too much for you to deal with. One of the many beauties of Yiddishkeit is that it is entirely permissible (and, perhaps, even recommended for most people) to remonstrate with Hashem about the perceived unfairness of everything.

    Please accept my Brachah that your personal circumstances change for the better, very, very soon.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team