{"id":68162,"date":"2020-01-05T15:29:13","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T13:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=68162"},"modified":"2023-07-30T09:27:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T06:27:03","slug":"suffering-as-reward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/suffering-as-reward\/","title":{"rendered":"Suffering As Reward"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[478,366,539,500,531],"acf":{"old_id":"68162","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":60755,"related_cahpter":"387","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Whether we accept with love, or fight with courage - each of us is more than a diagnosis\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The words of today\u2019s chapter, written some 2,700 years ago, remain vivid and seem to address the reader directly. They are challenging: who is this \u201csuffering servant\u201d and what was he doing? <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the eyes of many Jews, the \u201csuffering servant\u201d represents the people of Israel who, while now in exile, would surely experience redemption and triumph in the Last Days. Some early rabbinic interpretations identified the \u201csuffering servant\u201d with a personal messiah who would fulfill Isaiah\u2019s prophecy, but medieval interpreters such as\u00a0 Rashi and Radak thought that the servant passages did not refer to the person of the messiah, but rather the collective fate of Israel. Others, such as Maimonides, stuck to the older rabbinic interpretation of a personal messiah.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the passages really came to life in Christian tradition where the \u201csuffering servant\u201d personified the life, suffering, and death of Jesus. Not surprisingly, the chapter remains one of the most charged texts in the Jewish-Christian encounter to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A very different line of reading appears in the Babylonian Talmud, in Berachot 5a, where verse 10 is used to argue that God crushes those God desires with sickness:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, one might have thought that this applies even if [a person] does not accept [their suffering] with love. The verse therefore also states \u201cif his soul acknowledges his guilt.\u201d \u2026.\u00a0 And if one accepts [that suffering with love], what is their reward? As the verse also states: \u201cThat he might see his offspring and have a long life.\u201d [This means that] moreover, in addition to these earthly rewards, their Torah study will endure and their Torah study will be successful, as it is stated in the same verse: \u201cGod\u2019s purpose,\u201d the Torah, \u201cmight prosper by his hand.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to this interpretation, suffering should be accepted lovingly, leading to the mainstays of a good life in this world-view: offspring and Jewish learning. This talmudic passage then turns suffering into reward\u2014a perspective that does not sit well with our contemporary western values. Instead, people who have severe illnesses are often encouraged to engage in battle with their disease; we talk about cancer survivors, for example, who continue fighting, and we prize their struggle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead, these lines tell us not to fight suffering but to embrace it head on. At a time when many people live with cancer as a chronic illness, much like heart disease or diabetes, this idea can offer us many lessons. While living with suffering, the rabbis encourage us to remember that acceptance has its own rewards. The traditional answers given here\u2014children and learning\u2014might look differently for each of us, but they are a reminder that we are more than our diagnosis, more than an illness. We are human beings with free choice, with the ability to shape our lives, whatever happens.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":68163,"id":68163,"title":"is53-thinking man","filename":"is53-thinking-man.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-thinking-man.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/suffering-as-reward\/is53-thinking-man\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is53-thinking-man","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":68162,"date":"2020-01-05 13:28:55","modified":"2020-01-05 13:29:10","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1279,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-thinking-man-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-thinking-man-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-thinking-man-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-thinking-man-1024x682.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":682,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-thinking-man.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1023,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-thinking-man.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1279,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-thinking-man-1200x799.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":799,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-thinking-man-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Suffering As Reward","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Whether we accept with love, or fight with courage - 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