How To Handle Suffering And Pain?

Yeah, what do you do if you battle with PTSD and trauma from horrible things that you went through in your uh life? The PTSD leads to anger because the pain and the sadness. Um well, I mean, if you watched my film of my personal story, you'll know that I also went through some very very serious pain in my life. the things that I talked about in the lectures and the things that uh you know only my wife and and himself know about and continue to deal with. Pain is difficult. Suffering is difficult. Agony is difficult. But the more Torah that you learn and apply to your life, the more you're able to have the strength to overcome the pain and still be happier than everybody else uh that's around you because you're connected to not only the ultimate source of everything good that you got, but also the ultimate source of all of the difficulties that you got. And you start seeing the purpose behind them. The purpose of that trauma that you experienced, the purpose of that difficulty that you experienced, the purpose of all of the different trials and tribulations that you have in your life, had in your life or will have in your life. It's very very important for a person to know that no one has an easy life. No one. There's no such thing as an easy life. Whether you're a millionaire, billionaire, poor person, Jew, Gentile, nobody has an easy life. Everybody has difficulties. the the the thought that there's such a thing as an easy life is is literally an illusion. Uh it's an illusion. And many times people think that oh but this rich person he has a easy life because he has a lot of money. He may have a lot of money and solve uh the problem uh where he doesn't have to depend on another person to feed him. But that does not solve his problems with emotions. Doesn't solve his problem with honesty. Doesn't solve his problems with loyalty. doesn't solve his problems with a uh you know uh the different issues that happen in life whether his wife uh is cheating on him or his uh kids are drug addicts or his boss is stealing from him or his customers are or his partner uh or his drug addiction or the million and a half different issues and most importantly whether he's going to live or die tomorrow. Uh many times people look at rich people and celebrities and think that they have an easy life. But if you live long enough to see uh those people uh their lives play out, you'll see that all of them have a bitter end without an exception. Every single one of them have a bitter end. Bitter lives overall. You see, oh yeah, he was celebrated. He made a lot of money. He uh looked like he was on top in the world. And then next thing you know, he's on the uh cover of the newspaper as a pedophile. He's on the cover of the newspaper because on the run from the cops because they're accusing him of rape or trafficking women or uh or drugs or uh or he has cancer or he has all types of horrible things or you see how their kids or their wives are the multiple divorces and marriages and and betrayals and the bad things that people say about them. Look at all of them. It's I have a film called the uh world of lies and it talks about all of this stuff and I have many lectures where I discuss this. and say it's an illusion to think that just because somebody has anything material uh they have an easy life. Uh an easy life comes from a connection with God. Meaning life in itself will never be easy. It's not meant to be easy. It's in fact it's not even meant to be not difficult. It's supposed to be difficult. Why? As Job says, the prophet Job says the person came to this world to toil. to toil. We need to toil in serving God, to toil in order to fix and correct himself or herself, to toil in order to fulfill their purpose. And all of the difficulties that you have in your life, whether it's traumas, health issues, financial issues, relationship issues, anything that happened to you in your life, God is the one that decided to give that to you. Why? In order for you to do something about it. in order for you to fix something, in order for you to elevate yourself, in order for you to be tested, different reasons for different things, which means that the more you connect to God through his Torah, the more you'll know that every single difficulty is to your benefit. And therefore the trauma becomes a sort of a uh a positive experience if you will to a certain extent because you know that the price you paid is also there's a certain reward that you'll get for it. There's certain reward that you get for it. What the reward could be simply less suffering in the afterlife. Simply a lesson learned that that's needed for a better life today or many many other endless reasons that Hashem has. And the more a person connects through the Torah to his creator, the more they'll know and be able to connect, believe, and live those uh those the the reason for everything. Uh without even not necessarily knowing the reason for every single thing, but you know that there is a reason, a positive reason, a good a beneficial reason, the easier life becomes. Not because life in itself is easy, but rather because you know that there is an account for every single thing and there's a benefit for every single thing. There's a reason for every single thing. There's a master of the house and he doesn't do anything for no reason. And he's not here to torment his children. He's obviously here to help us if we follow his Torah. If not, then we're in essence poisoning ourself. And in fact, what uh uh you'll see the more you learn Torah is that the overwhelming majority of the suffering that people have in their life is through their own misdecisions to go against God. Because they went against God, they got bad things. Because he decided to drive on Shabbat, he also got into an accident on Shabbat. Because he decided to uh steal, he ended up going to jail. because he decided to be promiscuous, he ended up being promiscuous at the wrong time after he was uh married already. Uh because he uh she decided to be promiscuous, she got a uh you know STD because uh he decided to uh you know do all types of things that are against God, bad things happened. Which means that the more a person follows the will of God, the less issues they're bringing upon themselves. So this doesn't mean that if you are perfectly religious uh there you're not going to have problems. You could still have problems but you know that those problems have a purpose that is to your benefit is to your benefit. And this is something that uh certainly makes a person happy through thick and thin. Whether there uh there's difficulties in life or uh there is uh uh major issues you still are able to be uh positive to be hopeful and not to get to a point where you are depressed and miserable and want to kill yourself or something like that like unfortunately many people get to when they lose hope because they don't think that there's a master of the house. There is a master of the house. There is a master of creation. There is a master of everything and that's Hashem. And Hashem is giving you all of these issues for your own benefit. You just have to connect to him through his Torah in order for you to start seeing some of those reasons and you'll succeed. We are meant to be a light unto the nations, not to follow their misguided practices. Remember, every Jew has to remember that he's a Jew and she's a Jew. We don't celebrate non-Jewish holidays, even if they seem harmless. It's ail disrespect to the Torah.