Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

How many times have you looked around and felt that there is simply no justice here? >> [music] >> People who hurt others thrive and succeed while good people who wouldn't hurt a fly go through unimaginable hardships that break your heart. This upside down reality is perhaps the [music] most painful question in humanity. How does Judaism deal with it? Let's imagine for a moment a perfect world, a world where for every act of kindness toward others you immediately get a raise and for every lie or act of hurting someone you immediately get a crazy toothache. Sounds great, right? But the truth is that such a world would turn us into robots. If [music] reward and punishment were as clear and immediate as the laws of nature, we wouldn't truly have free will. [music] We would only behave well out of paralyzing fear or personal interest. For our actions to have any real value, the creator of the world leads reality through hidden providence. [music] The words I love you mean nothing when someone is holding a gun to your head. Choosing good can only exist when there is absolute [music] freedom. When the divine is hidden and the choice is in our hands, every right action has a significance that shakes worlds. So, is everything here random and arbitrary? Absolutely not. We only see a tiny window of time out of eternity. Think of the world like a theater stage. We are actors reading one small line from the script. The creator of the world is the director who sees [music] the entire creation and knows how the stories connect into a perfect puzzle. To understand, one must broaden their perspective. Judaism reminds us that we are not just a physical body, but an eternal soul. From this point of view, the calculation is different. Sometimes suffering is intended to refine us toward the true [music] good and sometimes it is the secret of reincarnation. Closing a circle and rectification from previous lives. Then there are also righteous people [music] who take pain upon themselves to atone for the entire generation and who among us knows in real time what is truly good and what is bad. In the Bible, [music] the word mashber, crisis, is the name for a birthing stool. A crisis is a bone-breaking pain that takes [music] us out of our comfort zone, but it is what gives birth to new life. Difficulties force us to grow. No one invites suffering upon themselves, >> [music] >> but when it arrives, it's like weights in a gym, strengthening the muscles of the soul and bringing out tremendous [music] powers within us. In our limited consciousness, evil is painful and feels like evil, and [music] that is okay. But from the perspective of eternity, it is revealed that every [music] tear and every challenge was part of a massive plan that is, in the end, entirely good and benevolent.