Friday, August 26, 2022

Individual Tests



''...for the Lord, your God, is testing you...'' [Re'eh 13:4]

One of the basic teachings of the Torah is that God does not expect of a human being anything which is beyond the human capacity to carry out.  This is quite understandable, for even a human being, who is very far from absolute perfection, would not expect of a tool that he has fashioned any more than he has put into it.

Certainly God, the Creator of man, knows man's capacities.  From this, it immediately follows that when a person faces any kind of a test of faith, it is certain that he has been given the capacity to overcome it.  And the more difficult the test, the greater are the individual's capacities.

The reason that an individual is tested is not because God wants to know how he will acquit himself, but in order that this person be afforded the opportunity to realize his potential, even that which is unknown to him.

And when one's potential capacities are released and activated, they become part and parcel of his or her arsenal, to be used for personal as well as communal benefit.

Source: Excerpt from a letter of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Toda!

You always put the right thing on your wonderful blog, just as someone might needs it..:)

I did!


Hashem bless you..

Nonee

Devorah said...

Thank you Nonee.

Off topic but for all Rabbi Kessin fans, he gave a new shiur which will be available in a couple of days... includes current events and the raid on Trumps' house. Can't wait for that one.

Devorah said...

Also, a brand new compendium of more than 500 lectures given over 4 decades by Rabbi Mendel Kessin with links to them all.
https://wixlabs-pdf-dev.appspot.com/assets/pdfjs/web/viewer.html

Anonymous said...

Hmm..in schools they teach the inyan of "nahama d'chesufa". They also love to continuously gush that people become "better people" through suffering. Sorry, but methinks the authority figures who have been spouting such views, haven't been interviewing the true sufferers within society. Rather perhaps they've just interviewed those with more tolerable types of suffering, on a scale of say, 1-100. Mind you, decades upon decades of uncannily-manipulated suffering (added to the physical sort) can be a very private thing. So I doubt they'd easily find such people to interview.

I'm not referring to the Holocaust - that's a topic in and of itself - and survivors had all sorts of varying experiences (not excluding their genetic makeup and emotionally supportive background) which could have determined how they turned out post-holocaust. Thus you can't use the plethora of inspirational Holocaust stories as genuine proof that suffering makes people better.

As for "nahama d'chesufa", ask yourself: Do toddlers feel shame when you give them food or prizes? Not at all! They take those gifts in stride! Well guess what. If G-d would have given me what I needed, I likewise would =not= have felt shame. Why should I feel shame from a Creator who created me? I'd feel just like the aforesaid toddlers and simply take it in stride. Why shouldn't a Creator give me what I need, even IF i would not have to "pay" for it thru nisyonot? Indeed, why make everything so very complicated?? (I don't wish to sign initials, this time)

Anonymous said...

Shalom.

The comment of Annoymous at 7:48 Am, gives food for thought.

A lot of what Annoymous wrote does make one think.

Gd help each one in whatever they need help with... Amen.

Nonee