One of the most transformative and enduring texts of Jewish spirituality is the Tanya, written by the founder of the Chabad Chasidic movement, R. Schneur Zalman, known as the Alter Rebbe. Having achieved great renown, he had become so inundated by thousands seeking his counsel that he decided to write a book that would articulate Judaism’s approach to many of the most universal and pervasive human struggles. In his introduction, he describes the purpose of this holy work as replacing the need for face-to-face private audiences. In this way, the Tanya was essentially the first Jewish self-help book ever written.
In Chapter 27, the Alter Rebbe addresses the spiritual seeker perpetually struggling to achieve righteousness amid the relentless temptations and machinations of their indwelling negative inclination.
At his wits’ end, this proverbial spiritual struggler, the beinoni of the Tanya, despairingly laments: “I feel like I am endlessly treading water; lots of motion, but no progress.”
The Alter Rebbe provides the following uplifting counsel: “One should not feel depressed or troubled at heart, even if you are to be engaged in this battle every day of your life.”
He then offers perhaps the three most radical words in the Tanya:
“Ulay l’kach nivra.”1
That is, “Perhaps you were created in order to struggle.”
Put simply, here we learn that Jewish spirituality sees struggle as part of our very purpose in life.
This profound teaching turns our understanding of life’s many challenges on its head. In it, we learn that life’s struggles, both inner and outer, are not impositions to be avoided or solved. Rather, each challenge is a providentially placed opportunity to extract and transmute the light hidden in even the most trying of circumstances.
As a contemporary Chasidic thinker put it:
“Some think life is all about doing good and keeping away from evil. To them, struggle has no purpose of its own—to have struggled is to have failed. Success, they imagine, is a sweet candy with no trace of bitterness.
They are wrong, tragically wrong. Struggle is an opportunity to reach the ultimate—when darkness itself becomes light. In the midst of struggle, an inner light is awakened. Light profound enough to overwhelm the darkness, encasing it and winning it over.”2
Epic Fail
The story of humanity’s very first struggle, as recounted in the Torah, represents arguably the most far-reaching tragedy of all time. Adam and Eve’s inability to obey G‑d’s command to refrain from eating the forbidden fruit, and their subsequent banishment from the Garden of Eden, are generally understood to be the root source of humanity’s perpetual struggle with temptation.
During a talk given on Simchat Torah in 1963, the Rebbe explained the deeper meaning embedded in this quintessential story, which was previously obscured by prevailing interpretations.
According to the Rebbe, Adam’s test was the archetypal trial of the human condition, and the Garden of Eden was the proving ground for humanity.
Would the first human beings obey the first Divine commandment ever given?
Given the significance of those primordial conditions, Adam’s every move would impact and set the course for human history from that moment forward.
The stakes couldn’t have been higher.
According to the Rebbe’s rendering, it was precisely because of the enormity of Adam’s responsibility that the snake, symbolizing the human inclination to disobey the Divine, exerted such enormous energies and focused all of its strength on sabotaging Adam’s mission.
Seen through this lens, the story of Adam’s struggle with the serpent teaches that the more resistance we encounter when faced with a particular challenge to do something noble, the more essential overcoming that challenge is to the fulfillment of our purpose in life.
The Rebbe concluded the talk, saying:
“We find this to be the case in our own lives as well. A spiritual or moral matter that objectively should be a simple and easy matter for a particular individual to accomplish—and, indeed, is simply and easily accomplished by others—proves incredibly difficult for that person to achieve. Precisely because it is critical to that person’s individual mission in life to accomplish this matter, the difficulties and challenges he or she faces are proportionally formidable.”
Rather than discourage us, the greatness of our challenges in life should serve as an indicator of how important it is to persist in our efforts, and it should reassure us that since we were presented with such a challenge, we were certainly also granted the resources and fortitude to surmount it.3
This powerful teaching highlights an essential aspect of the principle of specific Divine Providence. Namely, and perhaps counterintuitively, that the more difficult the struggle, the more integral that struggle is to your life’s mission.
The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Call
The Rebbe saw all kinds of opposition and challenges to the path of righteousness as surefire indicators that one is on the right path, going so far as to say that the more opposition one encounters when doing something positive, the more certain one should be that such a challenging endeavor is connected to their purpose in life.
For example, in 1968, after initiating a campaign encouraging all Jewish men to wear tefillin,4 he received fierce criticism and pushback from a particular Rebbe of a different Chasidic court. He later commented that he found the backlash comforting, because historically, whenever a meritorious movement arose within Judaism, opposition would come not only from the negative inclination but from holy circles, as well.
The Rebbe shared the same perspective with R. Menachem Hacohen after he was elected to the Knesset in the 1970s and experienced severe opposition from certain political parties because he didn’t toe the party line. When the attacks reached their peak, Menachem came before the Rebbe and shared that he was thinking of retiring due to the increasing intensity of the personal attacks.
“Maybe I’ll just leave this entire business. What do I need it for?” he asked.
“What you are doing is good; you mustn’t stop. And you shouldn’t be afraid of anyone,” the Rebbe replied, adding: “The Chasidic movement became stronger because it had opponents. When a person no longer has any opponents, they need to examine themselves; perhaps they are not doing what they are supposed to.”5
The same insight helped invigorate R. and Rebbetzin Binjamini, who had been sent repeatedly to revive and establish Jewish schools throughout Brazil, each time facing considerable opposition from local communities.
“Why is everything so difficult?” the rebbetzin once asked the Rebbe.
The Rebbe replied: “Since you are fighting assimilation, the forces of negativity are trying to fight back. It is like a candle; just before a flame goes out, it suddenly starts to sputter and jump. It’s not a reason to be dismayed, but to do even more.”6
An Enviable Position
No matter the nature of one’s struggle—whether it be internal or external, perpetual or fleeting, physical or spiritual—G‑d provides us with the commensurate abilities, tools, and strength to help us overcome them.
A beautiful example of this empowering perspective can be found in the story of a traditional Jew who found himself in a relationship discouraged by the Torah. Arriving before the Rebbe, he explained that he desperately wanted to live in alignment with the Torah and G‑d’s will, but he had powerful inclinations that persistently led him astray.
After describing his situation, the man fell silent and prepared himself for admonishment, expecting to be told in no uncertain terms how gravely he had failed to live up to G‑d’s commandments.
The Rebbe remained silent for a moment and then finally said softly, “I envy you.”
Surprised and confused, the young man clearly did not know what to make of the Rebbe’s reply.
The Rebbe explained:
“There are many ladders in life; each person is given his or her own. The ladders present themselves as life’s challenges and difficult choices. The tests you face are the ladders that elevate you to great heights—the greater the challenge, the higher the ladder. G‑d has given you this difficult test because He believes you can overcome it, and He has endowed you with the ability to do so. Only the strongest are presented a ladder as challenging as yours. Don’t you see, then, why I envy you?”7
Why Me?
Each of us is given our own ladders to climb. Their many rungs comprise the personal hurdles of morality and circumstance that we must overcome to reach our highest potential and achieve our true purpose. Seen in this light, life’s challenges become rungs to ascend rather than roadblocks to avoid, providentially placed in our path to help us reach our greatest spiritual heights.
By overcoming the challenges that wait along the path of our purpose, we unleash inner strength and manifest capabilities that a life of ease and privilege could never impart or invoke.
“Every flower must grow through dirt,” goes the saying.
This perspective emerges from the Rebbe’s unalterable awareness that the Divine permeates every aspect of existence. Even the direst circumstances and personal challenges are infused with Divine sparks waiting to be unleashed. As far as the Rebbe was concerned, there is no struggle that is merely a burden. Indeed, the Rebbe believed that the greatest challenges conceal the greatest light and that the deepest depths also house the greatest spiritual rewards.
A breathtaking example of this spiritual truth is found in the Rebbe’s exchange with a young man who was suffering from excruciating personal spiritual challenges.
He penned a letter to the Rebbe, asking one simple question: “Why me?”
The Rebbe responded:
“We do not know. The mysteries of people’s journeys are beyond our human finite comprehension.”8
The Rebbe then offered a revitalizing insight, saying: “One observation that can be suggested… If an individual experiences a particularly difficult, or trying, situation, it may be assumed that Hashem has given him extraordinary powers to overcome the extraordinary difficulty. The individual concerned is probably unaware of his real inner strength; the trial may therefore be designed for the sole purpose of bringing out in the individual his hidden strength, which, after overcoming his problem, can be added henceforth to the arsenal of his revealed capacities, in order to utilize both for infinitely greater achievements for the benefit of himself, and others.”
Put simply, sometimes a person possesses an incredible inner light that can change the world. There is no way for this person to discover that secret power within himself and call it his own without being compelled to overcome a major challenge.
It is often the case that we ourselves are unaware of the inherent power and truest potential of our own souls. It isn’t until we are forced by adversity to dig deep and find our greatest strengths that we are empowered to change the world. We are thus impelled to travel to an uncharted place in ourselves, which would have otherwise remained undiscovered. In that process, we unleash the true power and light of the soul, which, when integrated, can illuminate our lives and our world in incredibly powerful ways.
Where others might have looked down on the young man with disdain or pity, the Rebbe saw someone graced with tremendous spiritual strength, signaled by the very struggles that made others doubt his inherent sacredness. Where others saw a tragedy of morality, the Rebbe saw an opportunity to reach for unmatched spiritual heights. The young man wasn’t crippled by a crisis of virtue—he had been sent as an emissary into the deepest darkness because his potential to shine the light of G‑d was of a greater magnitude.
Indeed, it would have been easy for G‑d to clear the way for us, allowing us to coast effortlessly along the paths of our lives. But in His infinite wisdom and benevolence, G‑d orchestrated for each of us to encounter roadblocks and obstacles that invoke our greatest potentials.
In this way, the uphill battles of our lives become spiral paths leading us ever higher and closer to G‑d and to fulfilling our most sacred purpose.
Quiz Yourself
Do the Thought Exercise
Think of a mitzvah you find particularly challenging. Try to reframe it as a gift to help you fulfil your soul’s unique purpose in this world.
Take the Challenge
In the face of adversity, challenge yourself to identify two new insights—depths of understanding—you have uncovered as a result of the struggle.
Join the Discussion