Why do we remember that there is a G-d only when troubles come upon us?

Most of us tend to take positive events in our lives for granted. Only when we have trouble with health, livelihood and relationships - is there one culprit. Why?

Why do we remember that there is a G-d only when troubles come upon us?

We tend to take the good in our lives for granted. Sometimes we succeed at work, earn well, health, family, children and wife - without any problem, and it seems natural to us, something that we deserve. We for a moment do not think where does all this good come from? Ask an ordinary person from the street, he will explain that health is as a result of fitness he does every day, livelihood is from his hard work but in general he does not pay attention to Gd, from whom everything comes. Sometimes we forget that it is too high for us. 

When do we remember that there is a Creator for the world? When trouble comes upon us. Suddenly God forbid a person is sick, fired from a job or any other problem. Suddenly we blame Gd for the trouble he is causing us. The good we had? We tend to attribute to ourselves, the evil, we tend to attribute to the Blessed One. Rabbi Chaim David Kowalski, presenter of the digital gemara, explained that "the real purpose of these troubles is not only to hurt and harm, but to make people look up to heaven, to remember that there is a Gd from whom everything comes, and thereby strengthen in faith and turn to him in prayer." 

According to Rabbi Kowalski, "If we live constantly out of awareness that everything that comes to us - comes from the Blessed One, and that the abundance, goodness and blessing we have in life is not self-evident but a gift from above then no painful blows will be needed to make us look up." . 

Why remember to pray only when there is trouble? (Photo: ShutterStock)

IDF soldiers and an ultra-Orthodox student work near the Western Wall (Photo: ShutterStock)

Where do we see this idea in the Gemara that we study as part of the daily Daf? In Tractate Eruvin, page C, this is a stairway. A foyer is an alley to which several courtyards with houses are open. In order to be able to shake the aisle on Shabbat, remove objects from the yards to it or put them from the aisle into the yards, a beam must be placed above the entrance to the aisle, like a lintel. This beam reminds everyone that the aisle belongs to the people who live in it, and is not part of the public domain. 

However, in order for them to notice the beam, it must be at the appropriate height. That is why sages in the mishnah said that the beam should be at most twenty meters high - about ten meters high - and no more than that, because if it is taller people will not look up, nor pay attention to it. This is how the Gemara puts it: "Above twenty mothers her mother does not know, because Dala ruled in her eyes." Up to the height of her mother twenty, people look up and notice what is there, without unnecessary effort. Beyond this height, however, people do not usually look, so not everyone will notice that something is happening there.

Sages told us, Rabbi Kowalski added, know what is above you. One does not have to wait for falling stones, for all kinds of blows, to remember God. We must remember that all the good and abundance we receive comes from it, and is not something that is taken for granted.

Look up. Illustration (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Disposal (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Want to learn more topics according to the Gemara? This is your chance to join the digital gemara venture. This is a project in which you will watch a daily video clip based on the daily page presented by Rabbi Kowalski, founder and head of the Maorot Daf Yomi organization. As part of this, each person can be part of hundreds of thousands in Israel and around the world who take care to regularly study one page of Gemara a day, by watching a short daily video clip.

The section on the relationship with Gd is based on the daily page in Tractate Eruvin, page C, and is also published in full on the Digital Gemara website. In the section, you will meet daily at significant and fascinating points related to daily life, based on the daily study of the Gemara. The project is free of charge for its participants.

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