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The Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection is the one-stop shop for the Torah inspiration shared by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in one simple feed. The Jewish Inspiration Podcast, Parsha Review Podcast, Thinking Talmudist Podcast, Living Jewishly Podcast and Unboxing Judaism Podcast all in one convenient place. Enjoy!
Welcome back, everybody. We're at way number 25, B'Kabbalat HaYisurim, Accepting Pain. There's a known adage, no pain, no gain. If you're ready to live, you have to be ready to take the pain. Think of all of the things that are great in this world. Pleasure comes with a price tag. The greatest, most rewarding thing in the world is our children, and yet we suffer the most pain from our children. Marriage can be bliss, and yet it comes with its challenges. For everything valuable in this world, pain is a byproduct
of its attainment. Pain is an essential ingredient necessary for pleasure. As the Mishnah says, Lefoum Tsara Agra, according to the pain is the reward. The more struggle you have, the more pain you have in acquiring something, the more joy and celebration you'll have when you accomplish. We brought this example about the Olympics or about a marathon. The struggle is real, and people fight hard day and night in their training to be able to run those 24.6 miles
or 13.1 miles, whatever it is that they do, 26.2 miles. And they cry out of pain, their legs hurt them, their hands hurt them, their heads hurt them, they fall. But then when they actually accomplish it, it's the greatest feeling of fulfillment ever. We learn to grow from our pain. Like we mentioned in the previous ways, let your kids fail every once in a while, because that feeling of failure that children will feel
will spark in them the desire to fight harder next time and to win. That's why I'm not a believer at all in the losing team getting trophies. No, everybody doesn't get trophies. Only the winner gets trophy. And next time, you'll fight harder to be the winner. No pain, no gain. So what's the opposite of pain? Most people say the opposite of pain is pleasure. That's not true. The opposite of pain is comfort. Pleasure, you need to do something for it. You need to actually commit yourself to something.
My great-grandfather of blessed memory was handicapped from a young age. And his entire life he dedicated to happiness, to joy, to patience, to loving every human being, and that nobody should feel sad for him. And that nobody should feel like, oh, he's a nebuch, he's a sad sorry case, because look at him, he's handicapped. On the contrary, he became one of the leading rabbis in his generation. According to the effort is the reward, our sages tell us. The more effort you expend, the more pleasure you'll get.
Understand that growing up is an act of will. You decide what pain you cry for. If you jump ship when the waters get choppy, you'll never make it to shore. That's the way life is. Accept the pain by confronting reality and finding truth. Deal with the difficulties of life by finding pleasure within the pain. You know, I think this is even more so, I feel this now every day on a personal level, because my wife and I are expecting, I can't say my wife and I because
she's the one who's the one suffering and in terrible pain, but we've discussed so many times with thanks to Hashem, with gratitude and appreciation of the amazing gifts that God has given us. And we said, you know what? We looked at our children, which one of us wouldn't we suffer for? Which one of these children wouldn't we suffer for? Hashem should reward her that the child that comes from this pain should be the greatest possible on earth. Amen. So we can't
fear pain. We have to learn to welcome it as a necessary byproduct of growth. Don't escape the suffering of others. Moshe was chosen because he felt the pain of others. You see someone in pain, go comfort them. You see someone in pain, stand up for them. Don't be like the people in the New York subway. They see people fighting or someone getting mugged and they just continue walking. It's not my business. You see someone else in pain, make it your problem. Do something
about it. Pain is passing. Results are permanent. Make a list of the things you'd like to do, but are afraid of, and then overcome that fear. Pain is compared to an olive. You know, an olive, how do you get the oil out of the olive? You gotta smash it. You smash that olive, that's when you get the finest oil. Sometimes we as Jewish people, we're compared to that olive, where sometimes the best of the Jewish people comes when we're in
exile. It comes when we suffer, when we're facing really difficult times. We don't ask for those difficult times, but sometimes Hashem wants to demonstrate that we do better. The Jewish people historically have done better in exile than they did when they were free. There are three amazing virtues in this world that are acquired with pain. Number one is Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel. Number two is Torah, and number three is Olam Haba, the world to come. The only way to acquire
those three things is with pain. No one had it easy learning Torah. No one had it easy moving to Israel, and no one had it easy getting into the world to come. No pain, no gain. The Mishnah encourages us and tells us, If you toiled and you found your success, you can believe it. But if you didn't toil and you found success, don't believe that it's long lasting. And if you toiled and didn't find success, don't believe that either, because it's pending. It'll be there.
So, my dear friends, we're going to conclude this way number 25 with the blessing that we should not suffer too much pain, but utilize the pain that we experience to gain the best possible merits and virtues available to us, and that every day should be filled with fulfilling the opportunities that come our way. And that concludes way number 25.