G-d is the
reason the cosmos is here, but even more than that; G-d is the Compassionate
Shepherd of the Universe that has no physical body, and beyond that; we claim
G-d has taken special interest in His people.
From chabad.org, Psalm 23 tells us, “…The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want... He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even when I walk in the valley of darkness, I will fear no evil for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff-they comfort me.”
Isaiah, a
prophet, tells us of G-d’s love and personal interest in His people (Isaiah
60:21): “And your people, all of them
righteous, shall inherit the land forever, a scion of My planting, the work of
My hands in which I will glory.”
Should Pain and Suffering Cause Us to Stumble?
Hashem desires for us to do His will; that we wrestle to understand His ways. He longs for us to choose Him through hearkening to His call. He desires for us to love Him, all of us, from the most pious king to the lowliest worm, but only of our own accord. While we don’t know why some may suffer; we know justice must prevail, either divine reward or divine punishment, according to our deeds. We can’t have faith and believe in the possibility of the incurable. Maimonides taught that to deny Moshiach’s coming, and subsequently the arrival of a world without suffering, is equivalent to denial of Torah in its entirety. Thus, we are able to derive that in the age of Moshiach, pain and suffering will cease because of our own doing, as then we will be completely occupied with our relationship with G-d; that is when G-d gets His way, and if we love G-d, then His way is our ideal.
Should Pain and Suffering Cause Us to Stumble?
Hashem desires for us to do His will; that we wrestle to understand His ways. He longs for us to choose Him through hearkening to His call. He desires for us to love Him, all of us, from the most pious king to the lowliest worm, but only of our own accord. While we don’t know why some may suffer; we know justice must prevail, either divine reward or divine punishment, according to our deeds. We can’t have faith and believe in the possibility of the incurable. Maimonides taught that to deny Moshiach’s coming, and subsequently the arrival of a world without suffering, is equivalent to denial of Torah in its entirety. Thus, we are able to derive that in the age of Moshiach, pain and suffering will cease because of our own doing, as then we will be completely occupied with our relationship with G-d; that is when G-d gets His way, and if we love G-d, then His way is our ideal.