Our Purpose on this Earth

The pasuk says in Mishlei , "כי את אשר יאהב ה' יוכיח" – Hashem chastises those whom He loves most. If a person has to endure a difficulty in this world, it is a blessing in disguise. By experiencing yissurin , a person becomes cleansed from his sins, enabling him to enjoy eternal bliss. The Ruach Chaim writes, if a person would take away time from indulging in physical pleasures and instead delve into Torah study, that would count for him as if he experienced yissurin. This means besides for the rewards given for the Torah study itself, the person will also be cleansing himself from his sins through it. Rabbenu Yona writes in the Yesod HaTeshuva , when a person holds back his evil inclination to indulge in something forbidden, that as well counts as yissurin and will cleanse him from his sins. Sometimes, Hashem gives a person yissurin to help him improve his ways. Our entire purpose of being on this earth is to follow Torah and mitzvot to the best of our ability. In Hashem's great love for us, He helps us with that by reminding us, in order that we shouldn't fall off the proper path. And thus, Chazal teach us, if a person sees that afflictions are befalling him, he should view it as a calling to change his ways. A man told me he has somewhat of a heart condition and, in recent weeks, his heart rate became very rapid. He had a cardiac ablation procedure which did not help him. After exhausting all other options, his doctor told him he needed to put him out with general anesthesia and then shock his heart to get it back to normal. The man was obviously fearful of such a procedure but there was no other choice. On the day of the procedure, as he was lying in the hospital bed, the man began talking to Hashem. He said, if his heart would become normal again, he would start learning the Daf Yomi immediately. A few minutes later, the doctor came in to administer the anesthesia and he told the patient, it looks like your heart rate just went down on its own. Let's wait a little and see what happens. After waiting, the doctor called off the procedure. The man left the hospital with a healthy heart and began learning the Daf Yomi.Our job is Torah and mitzvot and we are to respond to yissurin with an improvement in those areas. It is the job of every parent to ensure that his or her children are utilizing the potential that Hashem gave them. If a parent sees his child going off or not living up to his potential, he is to do everything in his power to help him improve. The job is difficult, but when a parent does everything in his power to help his child, then he will know he did his part and the rest is in Hashem's hands. Recently, a shul in New Jersey held a raffle campaign with the winning prize being a car, namely a Tesla. When the winner was called by phone, he was in complete shock. He is not from that community and bought a ticket just a few hours before the drawing. He explained that he has a son who is not doing well spiritually and told him he was leaving yeshiva. No matter what this father said or did, he couldn't convince his son out of it. Finally, in a last ditch effort to save his son, the father told him, "I will do anything you want if you stay in yeshiva." The boy said, "Okay, if you buy me a Tesla, I'll stay." The father said, "If that's what it takes, I'll get you one." He made a phone call and ordered the car. The price was $40,000, which he did not have to pay for it. Then he found out about this raffle and bought a ticket, hoping that Hashem would have compassion on him after seeing how hard he was trying to keep his son religious. And that's what happened, he won the raffle and kept his son in yeshiva. If we are doing the best we can spiritually, then we can be confident we are doing our part and Hashem will take care of the rest.