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(continued)
Question: I am having a hard time understanding the Mumbai attacks.1
Rabbi Shlomo: what makes you think you can understand them
Question: how such good people can suffer
Rabbi Shlomo: indeed. I feel your pain. But read what I wrote above
Question: right...but it still bothers me
Rabbi Shlomo: IT SHOULD BOTHER YOU.
Rabbi Shlomo: And that is PERCISELY why you CAN'T understand it!
Rabbi Shlomo: If you understood it, it wouldn't bother you anymore. And that would be wrong
Question: can this possibly mean that we are in the times of Mashiach?
Rabbi Shlomo: this may be, although this too we can't fully know... meaning, we are not fully able to say that action X means result Y
Rabbi Shlomo: However, the Lubavitcher Rebbe has already said a while back that we are in the times of Moshaich... and other aspects of this event have lead more people to believe that we are even closer to that day
Question: who is taking care of their little boy?
Rabbi Shlomo: the grandparents
Question: wow
Question: my husband told me that the rabbi and hios wife will get a huge portion in Olam Haba [Ed. the World to Come/Heaven]
Rabbi Shlomo: absolutley
Question: thank you for your help rabbi
Rabbi Shlomo: my pleasure... and try not to think too much about WHY Hashem does what HE does. Instead think about what Hashem wants US to do
Question: ok...good idea....I just sometimes worry that even if people do what He wants, G-d forbid they still suffer...then I just get more perplexed...Like in Europe during the pogroms and the Holocaust.., and I have heard countless times that we cannot question, but tthat it a good answer for those who have 100 percent unwavering faith and trust, but for those who don't, it's much harder to digest...I mean they were huge rabbinical giants we perished
Question: I thought Mitzvot brings a person life
Question: Hashem says that we should do mitzvot that we may live
Rabbi Shlomo: we don't have a gaurantee that there will be no suffering in life. Plus, what we perceive as suffering might not always be bad... for example, think about this:
Rabbi Shlomo: Let's say it was decreed in heaven that someone had to die. His time on this world is up...
Rabbi Shlomo: would it be better to die in a random car accident by a drunk driver, or to die in midst of serving G-d in the home of G-d?
Question: serving G-d of course
Question: I't always best to serve G-d...,but I'm just saying that suffering can disillusion a person
Rabbi Shlomo: let's get to that in a second.
Rabbi Shlomo: Meanwhile, for the sake of a clear conversation lets follow the order :-)
Rabbi Shlomo: so you agree that it would be better to die in the midst of serving G-d than to die of cancer or in a random car accident?
Question: yes
Rabbi Shlomo: now, of the milllions of people who die every year, how many people die serving G-d?
Question: hundreds?
Rabbi Shlomo: I don't know?
Question: few
Rabbi Shlomo: How many people do you know that died in the midst of serving G-d, in the house of G-d?
Rabbi Shlomo: very few!
Rabbi Shlomo: ok... so let's back up a minute
Rabbi Shlomo: we agree that millions of people die every year
Rabbi Shlomo: so obviously dying doesn't make the Mumbai Kedoshim [fallen heroes] unique
Rabbi Shlomo: what makes them unique is that they died while serving G-d.
Question: but if they were serving G-d, why weren't they protected?
Rabbi Shlomo: Now we just said that dying while serving G-d is not a bad thing. To the contrary, it is a good thing, a good thing very few people merit. (Now remember, we are not saying dying is a good, painless or happy thing. We are saying that if one is destined to die, this type of death is a good one; it is a merit not a punishment).
Question: kidush Hashem [Sanctification of G-d's name - i.e. dying only because you are Jew]
Rabbi Shlomo: In other words:
Rabbi Shlomo: You keep asking that if they are serving G-d how can they die
Rabbi Shlomo: but that is really a flawed question.
Rabbi Shlomo: If someone serves G-d does that mean they will live forever?
Question: no, but I thiugh that they had a special seyata dishmaya [Divine assistance]
Rabbi Shlomo: they do... and in this case it is expressed itself that although it was time for these neshomot to go back to Heaven, they didn't just go back like ordinary people through illness or a car accident etc, rather (because they were such holy people) they had the Zchut [merit] that when it came their time to die, they got to die Al Kidush Hashem, in the midst of hosting guest, in a Chabad House!
Rabbi Shlomo: And not only that. In their zchus millions of people said Tehillim for three days, and afterwords millions of people did more Mitzvot!
Rabbi Shlomo: How many people get this Zchut?
Question: ok...I understand
Rabbi Shlomo: Thousands of people die every day! Yet how many get to die like that!
Question: very true
Rabbi Shlomo: Even in Jewish History, even amongst the Kidoshim of the holocaust and inquisition, how many had the Zchus that in their particular honor millions of Jews did more Mitzvot?
Question: right
Rabbi Shlomo: So here is the thing.
Rabbi Shlomo: Many people make the mistake to think that they died because they were in Chabad House and because they were Shluchim [emissaries of the Rebbe].
Rabbi Shlomo: That is wrong!
Rabbi Shlomo: It is against Judaism
Question: why would people think that?
Rabbi Shlomo: They died because Hashem wanted them to die, just like everything else in this world.
Question: G-d's plan
Rabbi Shlomo: However, (since they were Shluchim, and since they were holy) Hashem gave them the tremendus Zchus to die in such a Holy way, in the midst of holy work, in a holy house, and inspiring millions of people to do holy things
Question: I see
Question: makes tons of sense
Rabbi Shlomo: Just to be clear, I am not saying we understand why it happened, but we have to understand what happened.
Rabbi Shlomo: we have to understand that they died a holy and meritorious death; we have to understand that they were killed, but not forsaken
Rabbi Shlomo: this understanding doesn't diminish the pain (death is and remains heartbreaking), but it negates dispair
Question: understood
Question: those terrorists go to gehinom [hell] right?
Rabbi Shlomo: of course!
Question: rabbi, did you know the rabbi and his wife?
Rabbi Shlomo: I knew the Rabbi from yeshivah. We weren't friends, but I knew who he was. I did not know his wife
Question: ok...thank you so much
Rabbi Shlomo: my pleasure, may we only have happy things to talk about
Question: be well and all the best
Rabbi Shlomo: 2u2
Footnotes
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Philosophy » Pain and SufferingBest of AskMoses » Philosophy
