Q&A: The Connection Between the True Religion and Pleasure
The Connection Between the True Religion and Pleasure
Question
Hello Rabbi,
There is the well-known question of how suffering exists in the world. The Rabbi usually gives two answers to this:
- Free choice.
- Laws of nature
An interesting question came up in the group: how can it be that God commands a religion that causes suffering? Since God is perfect goodness, it would seem reasonable to assume that the religion He creates would not include suffering and difficulties. Therefore, a religion with those characteristics would presumably be false. (Here the above answers no longer seem relevant.)
What does the Rabbi think about this? Can a good God command an act that harms you or another person?!
Note: examples of suffering in observing the Torah — all the prohibitions, Amalek, circumcision, etc.
Answer
Sometimes you have to suffer in order to do the right thing. Moral commands also sometimes cause us suffering. There is no connection between suffering and whether something is right.
At most, one can ask why the world is built in such a way that doing the right thing brings suffering. But that is a question about the structure of the world, not about the commands themselves (my assumption is that, given that this is the world we live in, these are the correct commands). The difference is that to this question I would answer with the laws of nature and free choice (and that there is no better system of laws. I have written about this several times here on the site. You can search for discussions of evil in the world).