For the source text click/tap here: Chagigah 5
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The Gemora continues to explain the verse about the troubles besetting Bnai Yisrael, which is followed by a verse in which Hashem says that His anger will burn on that day, and He will abandon them, and hide His face from them, letting them be consumed. Rav Bardela bar Tivyomi quotes Rav saying that anyone who doesn't experience a hiding of Hashem's face and being consumed is not part of Bnai Yisrael.
Finally, he cried when he reached the verse which says that Hash-m will punish the people with afflictions that cannot be remedied (Devarim 31:21), because the remedy for one problem intensifies another problem.
Perhaps Rebbi Yochanan was sensitive to these particular verses because of his personal experiences. The Gemara in Berachos (5b) relates that Rebbi Yochanan lost ten sons but did not despair. He accepted the tragedies as Yisurin Shel Ahavah.
These themes of justified vs unjustified suffering permeate the theme of our dad.
We explore the writings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalmish Shapira, the Rebbe of Piaseczno, who composed "Esh Kodesh," an extraordinary collection of sermons, in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. This work is outstanding in its honesty, its power, and its religious and existential depths, especially considering the impossible and nightmarish circumstances of its writing.
Rebbe Nachman writes on the hiddenness of God using the same prooftext from Deut 321:21