Q:
When suffering comes upon us how can we discriminate if it’s maybe because of some sin that we have, because of punishment, or maybe to teach us something else?
A:
When suffering comes upon a person, how could he know whether it’s because Hashem wants to teach something or because of a punishment?
And the answer is they’re both the same. Both are teaching. It’s always teaching. There’s no such thing as ‘punishment’. It’s always teaching.
Now the teaching is two kinds. Sometimes it’s to teach that person alone and sometimes to teach other people. So when a criminal is put to death by capital punishment, it’s too late to teach him anything, but it teaches others. So, many times a person suffers not because he is capable of learning, but other people learn from him; they learn from his suffering. But if he’s capable, then he himself learns too. But it always is under the heading of teaching.
אשרי הגבר אשר תיסרנו ק-ה – How fortune is a man that Hashem gives him yesurim, ומתורתך תלמדנו – and You’re teaching him Torah (Tehillim 94:12). So all yessurim are really Torah.
June 1989
