The Causes of Suffering

 

The first and most common cause of suffering is sadness. Nothing invokes such severe judgments as our complaints and dissatisfaction with our lot in life. The Torah emphatically cites sadness as the root cause of life’s curses: "Because you failed to serve HaShem with happiness and goodness of heart when everything was abundant" (Devarim 28:47).

 

Sad people protest, "Abundance? What are you talking about? Look at my troubles!" They disregard the thousands of life’s daily blessings. By taking their blessings for granted and focusing on their difficulties, they make their lives even more insufferable.

 

HaShem always treats us with compassion and mercy. Dissatisfied people deny that HaShem’s Divine Providence is compassionate and merciful. Denial of HaShem, or lack of emuna, is a major antecedent to suffering and failure. Why?

 

When a person is dissatisfied with HaShem’s justice, the Heavenly court opens that person’s lifetime dossier to closely inspect whether he or she really deserves their current difficulties and tribulations. Inspection of a person’s actual debits and credits always shows that they actually deserve even greater tribulations and lesser blessings than what they have. HaShem is always "caught in the act" of excessive compassion and mercy, much more than justice requires. The person’s complaints are not only overruled, they actually instigate new demands of severe judgment against that person.

 

It turns out that a person’s discontentment with his lot in life is the main cause of his own suffering. Discontentment goes hand in hand with ungratefulness to HaShem and lack of emuna, two notorious antecedents of severe judgment.

 

Dovid HaMelech (King David) suffered untold tribulations, yet he recognized HaShem’s mercy and compassion in every stage of his life. Dovid HaMelech therefore pleaded "Do not enter into strict judgment with Your servant, for no living creature would be vindicated before You" (Tehillim 143:2).  

 

Suffering should initiate soul searching, since there are no tribulations without transgressions. Yet, before soul-searching, we should evaluate ourselves and ask ourselves if we’re happy with our lot in life.

 

Hurting a Fellow Human

 

Prolonged anguish is often the result of transgressions committed against a fellow human being. One who causes pain to another person cannot be forgiven for his own sins until he begs forgiveness from the victim of his misdeeds. As long as one’s injustices against a fellow human go uncorrected, there is severe judgments.

 

 

Tribulations frequently indicate that a person is either doing actions that are forbidden by Torah, or failing to fulfill the Torah’s obligatory actions.

 

 

Tribulations can also indicate that a person lacks the emuna that "there is none other than HaShem" (Devarim 4:35). HaShem often uses suffering to deflate inflated egos. A person’s downfall is often the result or his or her own arrogance. Shlomo Hamelech (King Solomon), the wisest of all men, said, "Pride precedes destruction, and arrogance comes before failure" (Mishlei 16:18). We can usually find a hint of arrogance and complacency before every crisis in life.

 

HaShem is especially compassionate when He deflates our egos, because it’s impossible for an arrogant person to get close to Him. The Sages of the Talmud said, "The Holy One, blessed be He, says: The arrogant person and I cannot dwell in the same world" (Sota 5a). Therefore, as a result, HaShem removes His Divine Presence from the midst of arrogance and arrogant people. Wherever HaShem removes His Divine Presence, suffering sets in.

 

To be continued…