We can become closer to Hashem by reflecting on the good in our life
WE ask Hashem every Rosh Hashanah to bless us with a prosperous, peaceful, and happy year. After “bad” years, we beg Hashem to bless us with all the same. Suffering helps us to feel our total dependence on Hashem, causing us to recognize the one and only Source of our salvation. That’s one of the hidden gifts of pain.
There are actually many others.
For instance, pain heightens our sense of joyful gratitude. When the hurting stops, there’s not only relief but there’s also extreme appreciation for the state of no pain — the normal, miraculous quiet and comfort of ordinary time. Life is so good. Indeed, having survived grief, wounding, trauma, hardship, poverty, illness, betrayal, or other intensely bad-feeling periods, we may eventually enjoy the simple pleasures of life in a way that would otherwise have been impossible.
Pain sharpens our senses and expands our consciousness — once it ends. If we’re still engulfed by it when Rosh Hashanah arrives, we will pray fervently to be released from its clutches. We don’t like pain no matter how good it might be for us.
And, fortunately for us, spiritual growth is attainable through happier pathways, too.
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