[Avodah] HKB"H doesn't give anyone a test they can't pass

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Sun Mar 10 15:15:36 PDT 2013


On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 05:07:10PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> On 10/03/2013 8:59 AM, Rich, Joel wrote:
>> I often hear people say  HKB"H doesn't give anyone a test they can't
>> ??? pass???. Does anyone know of any original sources either way on the issue?
>
> אין הקב??ה בא בטרוניא עם בריותיו.   (AZ 3a)

"Ein BQBH ba beturnia im haberios" doesn't necessarily refer to throwing
someone a test they can't pass. Rather, that He is not tyrranical.

I can imagine a whole slew of Holocaust-era situations which can't
be described as tests the victim was capable of passing without some
very creative definition of "pass". At which point, the claim becomes
meaningless.

For that matter, if they can't pass, then it's simply not a test. It's
a tragedy.

So, Hashem could very well put a person in a situation they can't handle.
It's pretty easy to find examples, actually. I know people who suffered
mental illness after some pretty traumatic experiences.

- A pretten girl who went to wake up her mother on what should have been
a regular morning, and her mother didn't wake up.

- An American who went on Machal and was sent into Lebanon. He went into
a building firing, as one can't risk being an easy target in a doorway.
An American teen couldn't handle the sight of what was left off the 7
year old girl was playing 5 avanim on the ground floor (below the target
he was going for).

- A friend was fleeing the WTC just as a jumper hit the sidewalk nearby.

Were these "tests" the person could have passed?

I would faster define the gemara as referring specifically to pointless
cruelty. As in the context: Why would Hashem tell the umos ha'olam to sit
in the sukkah le'asid lavo just to make the sun beat down on them? Don't
we say HQBH doesn't play cat-n-mouse with people?

When a person faces a situation they can't handle, we have bitachon
there is a reason. It's not tyrranical.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Time flies...
micha at aishdas.org                    ... but you're the pilot.
http://www.aishdas.org                       - R' Zelig Pliskin
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