Don’t Live on Easy Street

People often ask me a very good question: If Hashem wants me to get closer to Him, why doesn’t He simply reveal Himself to me?

Imagine that the electric company wanted to save money, so they closed down their transformers and relay stations, and sent a direct cable from their main generator to your house. When you’d turn on the switch to your 100-watt bulb in the living room, 50,000 watts of power would come through the cable. The bulb would burst to smithereens in a split second. Even worse, the cables in your walls would explode, and the whole house could catch fire. For that reason, the electricity can’t reach your home without a series of transformers, circuit breakers, and relays that reduce the core power of the generated electricity to a measure that you can safely use.

By the same token, Hashem’s divine light is infinite and unlimited. For our own benefit, Hashem doesn’t give us an illumination that is too strong for our souls to handle, otherwise we’d “burn out” – die, become insane, or lose our faith altogether, heaven forbid. Consequently, Hashem – like a good coach – gives us opportunities to strengthen our spiritual selves so that we’ll be sturdy enough vessels to receive an increased portion of divine light.

Every time a person undergoes a test of faith, overcomes an obstacle in his or her performance of a mitzvah, or fights against temptation and bodily urges, he or she strengthens their soul and becomes a proper vessel for increased divine light. The greater the illumination, the closer one gets to Hashem and vice versa. As we come closer to Hashem, life becomes ever so sweeter.

The Talmud tells the story (see tractate Chagiga 14b) of four sages that entered the “citrus grove”, allegoric of the upper spiritual worlds. One died, one went insane, and one lost his faith altogether. Only Rabbi Akiva entered safely and returned safely. The first three lacked the spiritual vessels that were required for such a high-level exposure of Divine light. Rabbi Akiva, on the other hand, had reinforced his spiritual self to the extent that the illumination not only did not damage him; it was gratifying to him, since he was a proper vessel for such a level of divine light.

Rabbi Akiva was the son of poor converts. He invested tremendous effort in refining himself during his transformation from common peasant to monumental Torah scholar with tens of thousands of disciples. Rabbi Akiva couldn’t rely on a blue-blooded pedigree or a father that was a great rabbi. Spiritually, he was a self-made man. At forty, he began the long road of Torah and tshuva, strewn with indescribable difficulties and obstacles such as poverty and limited natural learning capabilities. The Gemara teaches us that he spilled rivers of tears in begging Hashem to enable him to learn and comprehend the Torah. He was so poor that he slept in a barn. But, the disadvantages of his life fueled his burning desire to get close to Hashem. Through years of effort, deprivation, suffering at the hands of the Romans and after being cast away by his father in law, Rabbi Akiva continued slowly but surely in his tenacious and relentless efforts to learn Torah and to get close to Hashem. As such, he built himself into an exquisite vessel of spirituality that far exceeded his better-advantaged contemporaries.

Rabbi Akiva’s three colleagues each had easier lives than he did; they came from families of high social standing, and were each a great scholar in his own right. But, they lacked Rabbi Akiva’s depth of spiritual strength and were therefore damaged by an excess of divine light that their souls were incapable of handling.

Knowing that our difficulties in life are the vehicles that actually strengthen our souls and bring us closer to Hashem, we become girded with the strength to handle any situation. What could be a bigger encouragement than knowing that Hashem wants to bring us closer to Him? So, when we look at our lives through eyes of emuna, we instantly become both stronger and happier.

Don’t be jealous of someone that has an easy life – that’s not a prize. An athlete or weightlifter knows that without pain, there’s no gain. People that haven’t been tested are very limited in their capability to understand faith or to get close to Hashem.

You don’t live on easy street? You’re under the gun? Be happy – you’re one of Hashem’s favorite children. He’s giving you a rigorous workout because He wants you to get stronger; with a stronger soul, you’ll be able to receive a stronger illumination of divine light, and Hashem will be able to bring you closer to Him. What could be better?