Q:
What kind of kindliness is that of Hashem to cause one father to suffer with a Mongoloid in order to give another father a chance to kvell in his normal child and even do some mitzvos to help Mongoloids?
A:
What kindliness is it that one father should be tested by having a Mongoloid child whereas another one is able to rejoice in comparison with his children?
And the answer is everybody has something in this world. Nobody is perfect with all blessings in life. אדם לעמל יולד. (Iyov 5:7). A man is born for some kind of—I don’t want to say ‘suffering’—for some kind of difficulty. Everybody has difficulties in life. Here’s a man who has normal children but this man is a failure. He is such a failure that they have to have charitable organizations that send him chicken and fish for Shabbos. That man is deprived of medical services. He’s too poor. Many things in life he doesn’t have. At least there’s a compensation that he has normal children. You want to deprive him of that too?
And therefore sometimes a man has compensations for a Mongoloid child. Let’s say he has other children. There are cases where these people have very good children and therefore they have so much nachas from the other children that other people don’t have! And it’s more than compensation.
Now, let’s say for argument’s sake, that a man has both a Mongoloid child and he has no other children and he’s also a beggar and also he himself is ill; he has all the misfortunes. So he himself now takes the same place as his child and whatever misfortunes are visited upon a man which are not his fault, he receives full compensation in the existence where it really counts.
The compensation of Olam Haba is the purpose of our existence. And therefore, when people come there all the questions find their answer.
September 1983
