Spiritual Slumps

High fever, sore throat, muscle weakness. I found myself experiencing all these symptoms and more during a recent bout with strep.

In addition to the aches and pains, I had no appetite whatsoever. Foods that I had previously enjoyed lost their appeal. I needed to force myself to eat and drink in order to avoid becoming totally weakened and dehydrated. Eventually, baruch Hashem, as I recovered, my appetite was restored as well.

As we know, everything in the physical world has a parallel in the spiritual world.

The Ribbono shel Olam gave us the Torah, which is intrinsically sweet and pleasurable. As the Ohr HaChaim famously expressed, commenting on the words, “V’samachta b’chol hatov — You should be happy with all the good that Hashem has given you” (Devarim 26:11), “the good” is referring to Torah, as Chazal teach us, “the only good is Torah.” If people tasted the goodness and sweetness of the Torah, they would excitedly chase after it.