Beyond Punishment & Repair

At first, there was punishment. There were prophets who warned the people—for there is no punishment without warning. There were people who understood what they were doing and did it anyways—for there is no punishment without conscious intent. And so, up to and including the destruction of the First Temple, there was punishment.

But then came a time when there were no prophets to provide due warning. And rare was the man who had the power of mind to intentionally sin. The suffering that occurred then, since the time of the Second Temple, cannot be called punishment. Instead it is called "tikun"—healing, repair.

Then came the master of the hidden wisdom, the great Ari. According to the mystics, his teachings repaired the world so that all souls were healed and no repairs were left to be made.

It follows, writes the Mittler Rebbe, that all the suffering of the Jewish people since the Ari are neither punishment nor repair. If so, what are they?

We do not know.

One thing we do know: We know that we do not know.

But simply because the human mind cannot know a thing, does that mean this thing cannot exist? Because we cannot give a reason, is there then no reason?

Or perhaps it simply means that we should be a little more humble, since we are not the ones who made this world. We must wait, and when all the drama is done, then we will know with the knowledge of the Author Himself.