Chapter 33- The Proper Perspective on Issurim and Punishment
People often ask: If Hashem only created us to give to us and He loves us no matter what, why did He create aveiros, punishment, and judgment? And if Hashem only wants to give to us, why did He put us in this world and make us earn the great experience we will receive in the next world? Why didn’t He just put us there and grant us that reward right away?
In Derech Hashem (1:2:1-2), the Ramchal writes that Hashem wanted the good that He will grant us in the next world to be complete. He didn’t want to just give us a good pleasure — He wanted it to be the absolute greatest pleasure possible. The only way we could attain that is by “owning” that good. It must be a part of us, unlike possessions which are separate from us. That means we have to acquire the good for ourselves — we must truly earn it. By doing so, we are in a small way being similar to Hashem. Then, we are truly fitting to come close to Him and to draw the ultimate pleasure from Him.
In his lecture “Rosh Hashana: The Joy of Judgment” (www.RabbiOrlofsky.com), Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky elaborates on this concept and explains that Hashem wants to relate to us in some small way as equals, if it could be. Hashem wants us to have a relationship with Him that transcends the relationship of a slave to a master and even of a son to a father; He wants to relate to us as much as possible with the relationship of a Creator to another creator, if it could be. He wants us to be “like Him” on some level, because that is the most pleasurable experience we can feel.
That’s why our sages compare our acceptance of the Torah at Har Sinai to a wedding (Ta’anis 26b). Hashem wants to grant us this special relationship because we will feel significant for having this role and we will be proud of our accomplishments. Thus, Hashem created this world for us to earn that state and create our Olam Habba. This system provides us with an opportunity to become as similar as we can be to our Creator (though that similarity is obviously limited).
We would not be able to enjoy the ultimate pleasure if we didn’t have to earn it. It would feel fake. We would be ashamed over receiving an undeserved handout. Further, the pleasure would be separate from us instead of being part of our essence. But if we earn our reward, we will feel great over what we have accomplished. We will feel significant, and the pleasure will be part of us because we caused it. This is the sweetest feeling we can experience. Nothing can compare to it.
Some people say that as long as they receive pleasure, it makes no difference to them whether they earned it or not. But when we think about it, we will realize that this isn’t true. Every person is created with the desire to become great; everyone wants to be important. We know from experience that it is terrible to feel small and insignificant with nothing we can do about it. When people mock our generation and treat us like failures who should be pitied, it makes our blood boil. We especially hate it when they tell us we can never amount to anything great. We don’t want to feel like losers who are given things because people feel bad for us. We want to feel that we accomplished on our own! We want to feel great about what we have done. We don’t want to feel lowly; we want to be significant!