The benefit of hardships
Yisro, Moshe Rabbeinu’s father-in-law, decides to join Klal Yisrael after they miraculously left Egypt. Moshe went out to his father-in-law, Aharon followed, Nadav and Avihu came after them and once the Jews saw such important people giving honor to Yisro, they all went out to honor him as well (Rashi, Shemos 18:4).
Yisro had been basking in honor in Midian but left all this behind, setting out to the desolation of the desert to join the Jewish People. For this, Hashem declared that Yisro would receive exceptional honor. “Since Yisro came to Me with pure intentions, I caused him this show of honor” (Shemos Rabba 27:2).
Moreover, Yisro merited a parsha of the Torah in his name (Shmos Rabba 27:8), all because of his willingness to forego his own honor to come close to Hashem.
Another Midrash presents a very different picture, however. Moshe sends Yisro back to Midian (before the Giving of the Torah). Hashem explains: “My children were toiling in mortar and bricks while he was in his house. How can he join us in the joy of receiving the Torah?” (Yalkut Shimoni Shemos 18)
On the one hand, Hashem demonstrates how much he values Yisro’s willingness to forego the honor he received at home and join the Jews in the desert. On the other, since Yisro did not suffer slavery at the hands of the Egyptians as did the Jews, he does not deserve to receive the Torah with them. Why? He came all this way, and left so much behind? And Hashem recognizes the greatness of his sacrifice!
Harav Aharon Kotler explains that Yisro surely deserved praise for leaving behind all he had in order to join the Jewish People. However, this was not enough to merit receiving the Torah. Torah is acquired through yissurim — hardships (Brachos 5a).
In order to reach a level of understanding in Torah, a Jew needs some special merit. If a person goes through yissurim and accepts them willingly, this gives him that merit (see Megila 6b).
Rav Kotler goes on to note that in Pirkei Avos (6:5), Chazal provide a list of 48 ways through which Torah is acquired, noting that success in learning comes as a natural consequence of most of them (for example: “study,” “concentrating,” “speaking things out with others,” etc.). Included in this list, however, is “acceptance of yissurim.” We learned above that accepting yissurim provides a Jew with merit to understand Torah. How can success in Torah be understood as a natural consequence of accepting yissurim, asks Rav Kotler?
Rather, yissurim help in another way: If learning comes easy to a person, as they say, “easy come, easy go.” The Torah he learns is not really in his head. If he has to put in efforts, the Torah penetrates deeper into his way of thinking and stays with him. One who undergoes yissurim and remains steadfast in his learning appreciates Torah more. The more he puts into it, the more the Torah becomes a part of him.
This should provide us with chizuk, because we all have difficulties of some sort. Be it a chronic headache, financial problems, tensions in the home, etc., such yissurim try to pull us away from learning. They can also make us depressed, thinking: “Why is Hashem doing this to me? Without this, I could be accomplishing much more!”
We should try to appreciate that these yissurim are in fact bringing us closer to Torah. If we pass the test of yissurim, they give us merit, and the more we have to work for Torah, the better we will acquire it. Yissurim are in fact a gift. If a Jew finds himself beset by yissurim, he should think to himself: Now is really the opportunity to acquire Torah!
In Shabbos (33b), the sages relate how Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai fled for his life from the Romans and had to hide in a cave for 13 years, together with his son, Rabbi Elazar. During this time, they engaged in constant Torah study, despite the fact that they subsisted on carobs and water, and had to stay buried in the sand. When Rabbi Shimon was finally able to leave the cave, the sages relate that his son-in-law, Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, took him to a bathhouse to treat his wounds. When he saw the cracks in Rabbi Shimon’s skin, he cried, and his tears caused Rabbi Shimon more pain.
“Woe is me that I am seeing you in such a state,” said Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair.
“On the contrary,” countered Rabbi Shimon, “woe to me if you would not see me in such a state.” The sages explain what Rabbi Shimon meant: Before going into the cave, Rabbi Shimon would ask a question in learning and Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair would provide 12 answers. Now, after having gone through 13 years of yissurim and uninterrupted Torah study, when Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair would ask a question, Rabbi Shimon gave 24 answers. Rabbi Shimon recognized that his greatness in Torah was thanks to his having learned amid yissurim. He knew that without his time in the cave, this would not have happened.
Harav Nosson Tzvi Finkel was for our generation a radiant example of how one can keep learning despite yissurim, even Parkinson’s Disease. Although he rarely spoke about his illness, once, when he was a guest in the home of R’ Nachum Stillerman, his host began crying as he beheld his suffering.
“Why are you crying?” Rav Nosson Tzvi asked R’ Stillerman.
“I just don’t understand; why is this happening to you?”
“I’ve thought about this,” began Rav Nosson Tzvi. “I always loved learning, but maybe my learning was lacking in lishma. Now, Hashem gave me these yissurim so that my Torah would be more lishma.”
May our yissurim help us grow in Torah!