DEUT1558 "For my life is spent in sorrow and my years in sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity." – Psalms 31:11 Pain is a major contributor to human unhappiness (see "Contentment and Discontent"). In addition to the physical discomfort, pain exacerbates the sufferer's mental anguish by its implication of his guilt. The Pentateuch emphasizes the link between sin and sickness. "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments … and he will bring back upon thee all the diseases of Egypt … also every sickness which is not written in the book of this law" [this verse, Deuteronomy 60-61]. ... The average observant man justifiably ponders several questions. Does suffering serve a higher moral purpose? Is pain due to divine punishment? Is it proper to cry out against pain if it is divinely ordained? Is it proper to berate a person who persistently complains of pain? Is it proper to seek remedial help to ease one's pain? The rabbis provided answers to these questions. In many instances pain is indeed inflicted in punishment for sin. "He who can engage in the study of Torah and he does not do so, the Almighty brings upon him severe suffering." (Berachot 5a). "Man's sins bring upon him divine retribution" (Tanchuma, Tazria 8). Judaism also ascribes some pain to a divine design to open the sufferer's heart to penitence (Menachot 53b). Rabbi, the saintly editor of the Mishnah (2nd-3rd cent.), was said to have suffered excruciating pain for thirteen years because he had neglected to show humane compassion for a calf which sought his protection against a butcher who was taking it to the slaughterhouse. The pain disappeared when Rabbi, in an obvious mood of contrition, demonstrated compassion for a brood of weasels which were discovered by a maid in his home (Baba Metzia 85a). This incident supports the view that pain ennobles man's character. It is axiomatic that every individual who goes through life inevitably commits some indiscretion or a transgression of law. In the words of Ecclesiastes: "For there is not a righteous man upon earth, that does [only] good, and sins not" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). However, one is not necessarily aware of his wrongdoing. Suffering in the here and now is atonement which spares the sinner punishment in the hereafter (Berachot 5a). Under such circumstances, the suffering is evidence of God's love and is regarded as a "suffering of love" (ibid.). It brings reward in the hereafter by purging one's sins on this earth (Yoma 86a). Rabbi commented that such suffering is "precious" (Baba Metzia 85a). The true rationale of one's pain is never revealed to man. The rabbis therefore advised sufferers to examine their past deeds. If they discover some faults they should repent. If they fail to find any personal guilt, they may assume that the suffering does not reflect divine anger but divine love (Berachot 5a). Despite theological rationalizations of pain, most people cannot make peace with suffering and surely do not welcome it. Those who are confident of their virtue and merit plaintively echo the biblical cry: "To punish also the righteous is not good, nor to strike the noble for their uprightness" (Proverbs 17:26). Even a religious leader of the stature of Rabbi Yohanan (3rd cent.) exclaimed: "I want neither the pain nor its reward" (Berachot 5b). The Talmud concludes that not all pain serves a high moral purpose. "There is death without sin and suffering without inequity" (Shabbat 55b). Man is mortal, and he is subject to a process of aging in which pain is endemic. An individual who cries out in the agony of his pain is not unethical. It is wrong to preach to him that he deserves his fate. It is absolutely proper to try to ease one's pain. Those who are induced by pain to reexamine their daily conduct provide a useful redeeming feature to a period which is otherwise bleak and dismal.