Visit to the doctor

Rosie, my four year old daughter has this anti-doctor thing - she is absolutely terrified of them. So this week when she was due to go for her routine check-up, I thought it best to break the news to her on the way there so as to spare us all the ordeal of getting her into the car. Never one to disappoint, she literally flipped out when I informed her, and cried that she was afraid the doctor would hurt her. She begged me to take her home. I felt so bad for her - my heart went out to her. I explained to her that because I love her so much, I need to know that she is ok, and the best way to do that is for the doctor to check her. I told her I’d be with her the entire time and not let anybody harm her. Despite my efforts, she could not quite grasp the concept and wouldn’t calm down. For the rest of the way she remained terribly upset.

At the doctor’s office, Rosie threw a tantrum. No amount of calming her worked. I had to force her to open her mouth and obey the doctor’s instructions. All the while, she must have been wondering why her father hates her so much so as to put her through so much suffering…

G-d loves each and every one of us, and although it may be hard to believe, He treats us all as if we were His only child. This week Tuesday marks the saddest day on the Jewish calendar - Tisha Be’Av, the day that both our Temples were destroyed. Since then, the Jewish people have known almost 2000 years of pain, suffering and unspeakable horrors.

After all these years, amidst the anguish and distress, the one question that continues to haunt us is why? Why need there be so much evil? And although we don’t receive answers, although we will never be able to justify the terrors, we continue to trust, to believe. For deep down we know that no evil stems from G-d. More than that, the pain that G-d puts us through is rooted in His deep love for us; G-d doesn’t hate us for even a moment. Like my daughter Rosie, we don’t realize that all that befalls us is for our own good.

We await the arrival of Moshiach every single day. Only then will we be able to understand with our physical eyes how everything that ever happened to us was for the good. May he come right now!