Berakhot 5a (ה.) — the Talmud in English

Rabbi Yohanan said to him: This -

matter—that the Torah protects one from suffering—

even schoolchildren

who have not yet learned the Book of Job, in which it is written, “And the sparks of Reshef

know it,”

for it is an explicit verse in the Torah,

as it is stated [

Exodus 15:26]:

“And he said: If you will diligently heed

the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is upright in His eyes, and give ear to His mitzvot, and observe all His statutes, every illness that I placed upon Egypt I will not place upon you,

for I am the Lord your healer.”

Rather,

this is how this matter should be expounded:

Anyone who is able to engage in Torah study but does not engage in it, the Holy One, blessed be He, brings upon him suffering

that is degrading

and that troubles him,

confusing the clarity of his mind.

As it is stated [

Psalms 39:3]:

“I was mute in silence; I kept silent from good, and my pain was troubled.”

If I kept silent from “good,” then my pain was troubled.

And “good” means nothing other than “Torah,” for

surely

it is stated concerning the Torah [

Proverbs 4:2]:

“For I have given you a good teaching; do not forsake My Torah.”

This means that the “sparks of Reshef,” which are the suffering, will raise up the Torah study that is called “a bird,” so that he will be unable to engage in it because of the severity of the suffering .

This verse is expounded in another manner:

Rabbi Zeira said, and some say [

there is one who says that it was

Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa who said it: Come and see that not

like the attribute of the Holy One, blessed be He, is the attribute of flesh and blood. The attribute of flesh and blood

is that when

a person sells an object to his fellow, the seller is distressed,

because he was compelled by his straitened circumstances to remove from his possession something important to him ,

while the buyer is happy

that an object important to him has come into his possession.

But the Holy One, blessed be He, is not so: He gave the Torah to Israel

and was happy,

for He cautions them not to forsake the Torah, and praises it before them after giving it to them, saying that it is a good teaching, as

it is stated: “For I have given you a good teaching; do not forsake My Torah.”

And further concerning suffering:

Rava said, and some say Rav Ḥisda said: If a person sees that suffering is coming upon him, he should examine [

search

his deeds,

whether there is no transgression in his possession on account of which he deserves that the suffering come upon him, and he should repent for it,

as it is stated [

Lamentations 3:40]:

“Let us search and examine our ways, and return to the Lord.”

He examined his deeds but found no

transgression on account of which he deserved that suffering come,

he should attribute

the suffering

to

the sin of

neglect of Torah study,

as it is stated [

Psalms 94:12]:

“Fortunate is the man whom You discipline, Lord, and whom You teach from Your Torah.”

Fortunate is the person who, because of the suffering that comes upon him, strengthens himself in Torah study, and through this it is removed from him.

And if he attributed it but did not find

even the sin of neglect of Torah study in his possession,

it is known

that this suffering

is suffering of love,

for the Holy One, blessed be He, afflicts him in this world without any sin, in order to increase his reward in the World to Come beyond the measure of his merits,

as it is stated [

Proverbs 3:12]:

“For whom the Lord loves He rebukes.”

And further concerning suffering:

Rava said that Rav Seḥora said that Rav Huna said: Anyone

who

the Holy One, blessed be He, desires,

whom He loves and whose reward He wishes to increase,

He crushes

with suffering, as it is stated [

Isaiah 53:10]:

“And the Lord desired to crush him; He afflicted him.”

One whom the Holy One, blessed be He, desires, He crushes with the suffering of illness.

One might have thought

that He increases his reward

even

if

he did not accept them with love? The verse teaches [

in the continuation of the verse]:

“If you make his soul a guilt offering,”

and this is expounded as follows:

Just as

a sacrifice

of guilt

is not offered except

with the consent of

the owner, but it is not sacrificed against his will,

so too suffering

has reward only when it is

with consent.

That is, when he accepted it with love.

And if he accepted them

with love,

what is his reward?

The verse continues and says:

“He will see offspring; he will prolong his days.” And furthermore, his learning will endure in his possession,

as

it is stated

at the end of the verse:

“And the desire of the Lord will prosper in his hand,”

that is, the Torah, concerning which it is stated: “And all your desires cannot compare with it,” will prosper in his hand.

Further concerning suffering of love:

They disagreed about it,

disagreeing over its definition,

Rabbi Yaakov bar Idi and Rabbi Aḥa bar Ḥanina:

One said: What is suffering of love? —

Any suffering that does not entail neglect of Torah study,

that does not cause neglect of Torah study,

as it is stated: “Fortunate is the man whom You discipline, Lord.”

The continuation of the verse teaches concerning which suffering it says, “Fortunate is the man,”

“and from Your Torah You teach him,”

when it does not entail neglect of Torah study.

And one said: What is suffering of love? —

Any suffering that does not entail neglect of prayer, as it is stated [

Psalms 66:20]:

“Blessed is God, who has not removed my prayer or His kindness from me.”

That is, He has not removed from me the ability to pray.

He said to them,

to Rabbi Yaakov bar Idi and Rabbi Aḥa bar Ḥanina,

Rabbi Abba, son of Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba: This is what Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: Both these and those,

both suffering that entails neglect of Torah study and suffering that entails neglect of prayer,

are suffering of love, as it is stated: “For whom the Lord loves He rebukes.”

Rather,

if that is so,

what is the meaning of the verse: “And from Your Torah teach us”

which implies specifically when they do not entail neglect of Torah? The verse is not speaking of afflictions of love, but of the significance of afflictions that cleanse sins.

Do not read “talm

d

enu”

in the singular, referring only to the one who suffers,

but rather, “talm

d

enu”

[with the letter dalet vocalized with a tzere]. That is to say,

this matter,

the significance of afflictions that atone for sins,

“from Your Torah teach us.”

We learn this from the Torah,

by means of a kal va-chomer from

a slave whose master caused him to lose

“a tooth”

or

“an eye,”

so that he goes free. And this is how it is to be derived:

Just as a tooth and an eye, which are

only

one of a person’s limbs,

if the master strikes his Canaanite slave,

the slave goes free through them. Afflictions, which cleanse

the entire

body of a person—how much more so

does a person thereby go free from his sins.

And this is the statement of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish—

that afflictions cleanse sins, as stated by Reish Lakish.

For Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: “Covenant” is stated with regard to salt, and “covenant” is stated with regard to afflictions,

as he explains:

“Covenant” is stated with regard to salt, as it is written

[Leviticus 2:13]:

“You shall not omit the salt of the covenant

of your God from your meal-offering.”

And “covenant” is stated with regard to afflictions, as it is written

after the rebuke and curses in Mishneh Torah [Deuteronomy 28:69]:

“These are the words of the covenant

that the Lord commanded Moses.” And one should derive this by means of a gzera shava: Just as with regard to the “covenant” stated concerning salt,

salt

enters the flesh and draws out the blood, and

sweetens the flesh,

entering the flesh and drawing the blood out of it,

so too, with regard to the “covenant” stated concerning afflictions, the afflictions

enter a person’s flesh and draw out from him the boiling blood that brings him to sin; thus,

they cleanse all of a person’s sins.

Another matter concerning afflictions:

It was taught:

we learned in a beraita:

Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai says: The Holy One, blessed be He, gave Israel three good gifts, and He gave all of them only through afflictions.

And these are they: Torah, the Land of Israel, and the World-to-Come.

Torah—from where

do we know that it is acquired through afflictions?

As it is stated: “Happy is the man whom You discipline, Lord, and teach from Your Torah”—

who suffers and thereby merits Torah.

The Land of Israel

from where do we know that it is acquired through afflictions?

As it is written

[Deuteronomy 8:5]:

“For just as a man disciplines his son, the Lord

your God disciplines you,” and it is written immediately afterward—

“For the Lord your God

is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks of water, springs and subterranean depths emerging in valley and mountain.”

Thus, through the fact that He “disciplines you,” one merits the Land of Israel.

The World-to-Come

from where do we know that it is acquired through afflictions?

As it is written

[Proverbs 6:23]:

“For a mitzva is a lamp and Torah is light, and the way of life is reproof that disciplines.”

“The way of life” refers to life in the World-to-Come, and one merits it through “reproof that disciplines” [afflictions] in this world.

Another statement connected with afflictions:

A tanna taught

[an amora who would recite beraitot, committing them to memory]

before Rabbi Yohanan: Whoever engages in Torah and in acts of kindness,