Welcome to the daily chizuk (encouragement). The pasuk (verse) says, “We have to thank Hashem because He is so kind.” The Gemara in Masechet Pesachim explains that even when it appears that Hashem is being cruel, it is really His kindness. The Gemara says that Hashem collects His debts from us with the money that He gives us. If a person is obligated to have a major affliction, Hashem, in His infinite kindness, will give that person money and possessions and then take them away instead of giving the affliction.
Imagine you owed someone a thousand dollars, and that person came over to you, gave you a thousand dollars, and said, “Okay, please pay me back now.” You would be astonished at his kindness. But what if you owed him a million dollars, and he came and gave you a thousand and said, “Just pay this back to me, and we’ll call it even”? We would be singing his praises. So, too, it is with us and Hashem. We don’t know how much we owe, but with a little leak in the roof, Hashem calls it even; a dent in the car, and we’re paying back big debts. First Hashem gives us a car and a house, and then He takes back a little.
The Midrash (rabbinic homiletic tradition) tells the story of when Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi once accompanied Eliyahu HaNavi, and one night they were staying by a poor older couple. The couple honored them tremendously. They did all they could to make the rabbis feel comfortable. In the middle of the night, Eliyahu HaNavi got up, tapped their cow on the head, and the cow died. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi couldn’t believe the cruelty. This was their only source of income. They were such nice people. He asked Eliyahu, “How could you do that to them?” Eliyahu explained, “There was a gezerah (decree) in Shamayim (Heaven) that this man’s wife was supposed to die. The man loves his wife more than anything in the world. Hashem allowed me to take the cow instead as a kapara (atonement).”
I once heard a mashal (parable) of a wise man who knew how to understand the language of the birds. This man said that a wise man would sit out in the fields and listen to them. One day, a man named Yaakov walked by, observed him, and found out what he was doing. He begged the wise man to teach him how to understand the birds, but the wise man refused and said, “No, it’s not for you. It’s not good for you.” But after begging and begging, he finally agreed. They spent a few weeks in the fields learning the language, and Yaakov was ready to go out and test his new skill.
He went out and heard the birds saying, “Next Tuesday, there will be a fire at a place connected to Yaakov, and all of his wheat will be destroyed.” He was so excited that he hired a man to clear out the whole storehouse, and sure enough, on that Tuesday, the storehouse burned down with nothing in it. He said, “Wow, this is unbelievable.” He went back out to listen, and the birds said that the price of silver was going to drop drastically on Monday. So he went and sold all of his silver, shorted the market, and made a fortune. Then he heard them saying, “There’s going to be a robbery in one of Yaakov’s stores.” So he got the police to wait there in advance, and he was saved again. He was loving life.
Then one night he heard the birds saying, “Tomorrow Yaakov will die.” He said, “Uh-oh, what should I do now?” He ran back to his teacher to tell him the news. The teacher said, “I told you that it wouldn’t be good for you. If you didn’t know the language of the birds, you would have lost a lot of money on the wheat. You would have lost money on the silver. You would have lost money on the burglary. And then you wouldn’t have had to pay with your life. Hashem had planned all of those afflictions for you because of a much worse gezerah.”
This is why we have to accept all types of yissurin b'simcha (afflictions with joy). It’s kapara. It’s really Hashem’s kindness. Although we don’t feel it, it’s the truth. Hodu laHashem ki tov.