The Gemara (Bava Basra 10b) relates that Yosef the son of Rabbi Yehoshua was deathly ill. In this state, he had an out-of-body experience and could see what was happening in the next world. Eventually, he recovered. His father asked him, “When you had that near-death experience, what did you see?”
He answered, “I saw an upside-down world. The prominent people were lower, and the inferior people were higher.”
“You saw a clear world,” his father responded. “But what did you see about us, the learned people who study Torah? Where are we in the real world?”
He answered, “Just as you are important in this world, you are important in the next world.”
The simple interpretation, as Rashi explains, is that Yosef saw that wealthy and powerful people were insignificant in the next world. Because money is irrelevant there, they were no longer respected by anyone. People who were poor and downtrodden in this world were far greater.
However, Rav Yisroel Salanter and Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, offered an alternative interpretation of this story: The “higher” and “lower” people refers to their outward spiritual levels in this world. Yosef was saying that in the next world, people on a lower spiritual level in this world were often higher than those who attained more success. This was because the “lower” people were challenged more and fulfilled more of their potential than the “higher” people. Despite accomplishing less in this world, they were greater than those who had it easy and accomplished more. Thus, “the higher people were lower and the lower people were higher.”
We cannot know who has it harder. Challenges come in many forms, each with its own flavor. We can’t know who is greater. When we find ourselves growing haughty, we should think that maybe the other person’s battle in “minor matters” is greater than our successes, and we should have newfound respect for him. We must refrain from belittling others, which is something Hashem hates. Instead, we should feel fortunate to be part of this amazing nation that keeps trying despite the overwhelming challenges we face every day!