Take It On! Mitzvot – Spiritual Weapons, Part 8

In The Garden of Emuna, Rabbi Arush discusses the three levels of emuna. Of course, you need to read the book because these are foundations of life, but in a nutshell the three levels are: 

But the third level is almost off to the side. Aside from the emuna, and the knowledge, that this is really the truth, there is another truth: Hashem is doing this for a reason! And this is true whether or not you have the ability to be happy with the suffering and say thank you for it.  

The simple reality is that suffering wakes us up spiritually, in a way that good times just don’t.  

Even more, suffering reminds us that although the Evil Inclination whispers in our ear that we can do whatever, Hashem understands, it’ll be okay… it’s a lie. Our sins create our own suffering not as a punishment, but as a direct outcome of our actions, in a way we don’t want to admit in real time.  

Suffering reminds us that we can’t do whatever we want and get away with it. 

So, What’s the Message? 

Very often in our generation, when all of us are reincarnations and are not here in this world for the first, second or even the third time – we have something we need to rectify.  We  owe someone money, or someone owes us money. We made someone suffer and now we need to do a kindness for them, or the other way around.  

Oftentimes these situations arise and we don’t understand what is happening. Why did the court rule in their favor when the case was so clearly on my side? Why was I stolen from? Why did that person scream at me and insult me when I really did nothing wrong? And on and on. 

Rabbi Arush once told a story about a woman who came to him. Someone had stolen a significant amount of money from her and she just couldn’t get over it. Rabbi Arush said to her, “Know that you owed that person this amount from a previous lifetime. You paid your debt now, and the case is finally closed. But if you would have accepted it with love now without understanding, Hashem was prepared to give you four times that amount from another source. But because you cried and complained instead of accepting it with love and thanking Hashem, you lost it.”  

Therefore, basically all of the time, we need to simply accept the situation with a lot of “grains of salt” and emuna, and move forward knowing that if we could see the whole picture, we wouldn’t be upset at all. 

However, through our suffering, and even the ins and outs of daily life, Hashem is also sending us messages, for us now, in this lifetime. And this cannot be ignored either! 

Rabbi Arush said in a class about thanking Hashem some time ago, that although it is of course important to accept the difficulty with love and thank Hashem for it – that does not mean that we are not to search for a root cause and see on what we need to do teshuva and fix our ways. There is no suffering without sin! 

Hence, even with all the emuna of Levels 1 and 2, no matter what, we still must do Level 3. Hashem works midda k’neged midda – Hashem hints to us in what happens in our lives what we need to fix, according to what we did wrong. For instance, Rabbi Arush writes in The Garden of Healing that oftentimes, health problems are a direct result of not properly keeping the laws of health according to the Torah! He brings there many examples and little-known laws. He also brings a list of what specific sins cause problems in various parts of the body, to help you figure out what you need to correct. Whether or not you suffer from any health issues, it’s really worth reading this book for your long term physical and spiritual health. 

All that aside, even if what you choose to improve in yourself  doesn’t have a specific connection to your problem, making positive spiritual changes in your life is a very powerful tool to sweeten harsh judgments and bring down the miracles and salvations that we so desperately need. 

I have heard tens of incredible miracles stories about women who ditched their wigs. This also includes becoming more careful to not show any hair whatsoever, even under a scarf, snood, or hat, or beginning to properly cover the hair with some form of scarf for those who didn’t previously. There is a famous story and video of Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak, who promised a baby to a woman who couldn’t have any, that she would have a baby if she covered her hair. She agreed and was given a scarf on the spot. Within a year, he served as sandak at the brit of the baby! I myself suffered from debilitating migraines that have almost totally disappeared since I donated my wig to a non-profit that helps those undergoing chemotherapy, and started being much more careful to show no hair at all. 

Miracle stories also abound from those who started learning two laws a day of Shmirat Halashon, the laws of proper speech. I can’t recommend highly enough the  Mishmeret  Hashalom magazine and ShalomLink hotlines. These hotlines are available in  Israel,  US,  Canada,  the UK, and in many languages.  

Whatever you choose, taking on additional mitzvot is a very powerful weapon in times of trouble. It doesn’t need to be (and shouldn’t be) a massive undertaking all at once, and having a trusted Rabbi or Rebbetzin help you choose what is the most appropriate for you is even better. It also doesn’t have to be between man and G-d – deciding you will really work on your temper, or treat your parents with more respect, or focus on not speaking negative, derogatory, painful or false information is just as (and sometimes more!) powerful.  

Let’s not forget that the primary good in all suffering is that if it wakes you up to learn emuna and come closer to Hashem – then it’s already good! Lots of people have seen big miracles from learning The Garden of Emuna, Say Thank You and See Miracles, or starting to do daily personal prayer sessions, writing down 18, 40 or 100 daily thank You's to Hashem, or doing The Law of Thank You. 

If you can find something obviously connected to your problem, then certainly Hashem is hinting to you what you need to work on. Even if not, find something to strengthen yourself in, and G-d willing, this merit will stand for you and help you in big ways!