[Avodah] nisyonot

[Micha Berger]

The conversation was about my statement that I would neved tell a
Holocaust survivor who went off the derekh that he is guilty of being
a kofeir because "Hashem only gives people tests they can pass."

This is part of my general approach to checking hashkafic statements
for having more Truthiness than Truth:
    Would you tell it to a Holocaust survivor?
And there dies statements about bitachon causing positive outcomes, or
stories about zekhuyos or mezuzah in particular procting people, and even
simple peshat of "Naar hayisi vegam zaqanti velo ra'isi tzadiq neezav..."

In this case:

Not everything is a nisayon. So, while Hashem may not give a nisayon to
someone who cannot pass it, which is what the Ramban says on Bereishi
22:1, the intro to the Aqeidah, "veH' nisah es Avraham", that doesn't
mean that a person can overcome every tragedy that comes their way!

(OTOH, the Ramban's isn't the only take on that pasuq. See Chizquni or
the IE (ad loc). They say the point in the case of the Aqeidahwas for
others -- third parties -- to see his example. Chizquni: the prosecuting
angel; IE: other people.)

On Sun, Sep 24, 2023 at 04:58:37PM -0600, Daniel Israel wrote:
> This is never how I understood this concept at all, but I have no
> source. Who says we know what the nisayon was, and what constitutes
> passing or failing?

I don't think a nisayon is that kind of test. After all, HQBH doesn't
need to test you to Know what you are capable of, and as you note --
you don't get a grade back.

I would translate it more like "growth opportunity" or "hurdle to
overcome". Like checking if you can lift a given weight; it's not as
much about finding out whether or not you can, it's the exercise that
would make lifting future weights easier.

If you need to use the word "test", think of something more like a
military testing ground, more than a teacher's test.

But the contemporary translations seem to be more on target than "test".
Google offers experience, attempt, practice, try...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 When we are no longer able to change a situation
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   -- just think of an incurable disease such as
Author: Widen Your Tent      inoperable cancer -- we are challenged to change
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    ourselves.      - Victor Frankl (MSfM)