We must never forget that Hashem loves us, wants good and enjoyment for us, and always has our best interests in mind. We must never make a mistake to think Hashem is out to get anyone, chas veshalom. Everything, even the concepts of punishment and accountability, was given out of love; there is nothing Hashem does that’s not out of love for us. Any explanation of why Hashem created or does anything, even why Hashem set up aveiros and punishments, must start with the words, “because He loves us, so . . .” The answer never is, “because you should act better and you deserve it for rebelling,” even if we acted horribly and seem to deserve severe retribution. Hashem loves us unconditionally, and that is His agenda every time He interacts with us.
The whole system of aveiros and punishment was created out of love for us and for our best, even if we don’t understand how. Hashem doesn’t hate us for sinning or punish us angrily because He lost His cool, chas veshalom. It would be perverse and insane (and heretical) to claim Hashem really lost control and became enraged. Rather, whenever He relates to us in a way that resembles anger, He does so only because He loves us and relating to us that way is best for us at that moment. He has not left us, even though He is making it hard for us to see Him for whatever reason. When we understand that Hashem still yearns for us, we won’t feel repelled and will continue to try to connect with Him.
Hashem does not settle for second best when He wants to give to us. He is our greatest ally and biggest fan. He is on our side and is rooting for us to succeed so that we can attain the most enjoyable experience ever. He set up this system because He knows we can make it and reach greatness!
Hashem’s message is that WE CAN BECOME GREAT! Greatness is not only for the great tzaddikim of old. Hashem wants us to become great too — even if we are nowhere close in spiritual level to the tzaddikim — through overcoming the overwhelming challenges He gave us. We can achieve greatness forever by standing up to our yetzer hara when he tries to get us to sin. Toiling and straining ourselves in the battle of life is true greatness, and we can attain it!
In addition, issurim and consequences give us the strength to stand up to desire and reach greatness. Hashem created us to give us the greatest experience ever, and He wants us to be close to Him. By giving us laws we must follow, He gives us the strength to overpower our urges and attain eternity.
If Hashem made everything optional, we would indulge anytime we find ourselves overcome with passion. Because of the way desire grips us, we are unable to appreciate what we stand to miss out on by not accomplishing. We want to indulge too much. But by being required to hold back, we can muster the strength to listen to Hashem and do what is best for us. Hashem doesn’t want us to miss out on everything. By overcoming these overwhelming challenges, we will achieve the most incredible accomplishments and rejoice with Hashem forever.