The Blessing Hidden Inside the Pressure

“From the mouth of the Most High come not the bad things, but the good.” A Question in the Night There is a question every Jew has asked in a whisper, late at night or in a hard time. It never leaves the lips, but it burns in the chest. If Hashem is good and does good, and if His hand is open to every living being, where does this pressure come from? Where does this hardship come from? Has He forgotten me? Has He closed the heavens to me? This is not, Heaven forbid, a question of doubt. It is a point of truth. Picture a Jew who is down on his knees. He wants to support his family with dignity, and he feels the ground shaking under him. He is not lacking faith. He is thirsty to understand. The Foundation: Nothing Bad Comes from Above There is a verse in the Book of Lamentations that people tend to pass over, yet it is one of the deepest in the whole Bible. Jeremiah the prophet lived through destruction and exile. In the middle of all that, he stands and writes: “From the mouth of the Most High, the bad does not come.” From the mouth of the Most High, from Hashem Himself, nothing bad comes out. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, built one of the great rules of serving Hashem on this foundation. Our human eyes see some things as trouble and pain. But all of it is really “hard kindnesses” and “holy strength.” It is not that the bad turns into good in the end. There was never any bad there at all. What we call bad is only an outer garment, a wrapping, a hiding. The inside, the inner core, is always good. This is not a comfort. It is an explanation. The New Idea: The Blessing Is Not After the Pressure. It Is Inside It Here is the new idea we need to sit with. You might think the hard part is now and the blessing comes later. You might see it like a payment, like a reward, the way we wait for a storm to pass so the light can come. But that is not what the Torah says. The blessing does not come after the pressure. It is inside it. The pressure itself is what Hashem is doing. It is the vessel Hashem uses to bring out what is already hidden inside a person, so that it moves from what could be to what really is. There is a parable from nature that makes this clear. How is a diamond made? It starts as plain coal. Under enormous pressure and extreme heat, it cracks and becomes the most precious stone of all. The pressure does not get in the diamond’s way. The pressure is the reason the diamond exists. Without the furnace and without the crushing, it stays coal. The fire is not outside the gift. The fire is the gift. The Lesson: Hardship as Hashem’s Work Think about this for a moment, my friend. The pressure you carry in earning a living is not a sign that Hashem has forgotten you. It is a sign that Hashem is working on you. He is squeezing out of you a flow of blessing that you don’t yet know you have. The Torah says: “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread.” The plain meaning of the Torah explains that the sweat is not a punishment. The sweat is the means that gives the bread its value and meaning. Through it a person lifts up the sparks of holiness hidden in the material world and reconnects them to their source. Hardship squeezes out of you strengths you never knew. It brings thoughts you never thought, a creativity that was asleep, and a faith you didn’t know you had. This is not a theory. This is what a person discovers about himself in the middle of the struggle. Our Sages teach: “Everything the Merciful One does, He does for good.” This does not mean it will turn out good in the end. It means this thing itself, just as it is, is good. The good is only wrapped. You need to open the package. Closing: “See,” and What You See Is Everything The Torah says: “See, I have set before you today the good and the bad.” At first glance, why does it say “See”? Both choices are there even if you don’t look. Here is the explanation. Hashem is not offering two separate things. He shows you one thing and teaches you to see. He teaches you to see the good inside what looks bad. The choice is not between good and bad. The choice is whether you will open the package. The blessing is there. It is inside this pressure, inside this hardship, inside this night. Hashem has not blocked you from the flow of blessing. He is squeezing out of you the blessing that is your very own.