“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. A blessing, if you obey the commandments of God your Lord, which I command you this day, and a curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I command you this day.” (Deut. 11:26–28)
A Jew must believe and perceive that everything happens at the hand of God, and that the Holy Blessed One does not execute judgment without justice, God forbid. This is fundamental. It is one of the Thirteen Principles of the Jewish Faith, enumerated by Maimonedes in his commentary on the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 10:1): “I believe without a doubt that the Creator, blessed be His name, rewards those who observe His commandments and punishes those who violate them.” Besides this, it is also a source of strength and joy in times of suffering, as is written in the Tanya: “If a person, while in pain, acknowledges his sins (because everyone knows the blemishes of his own heart) and sees why this particular punishment was justly dealt him, he will not complain, God forbid. On the contrary, he will assume that just as God has punished him so will He nurture him when he repents of his sins, and like a father reconciling with his son God will comfort him. In these reflections, a person may take courage and joy.”
Aside from that, sufferings are hester panim, concealment of the Divine Face. When a person perceives within his suffering the Hand of God, and His justice and truth, he abolishes the hester (concealment). He reveals God even out of the hester and dinim (judgments). Then, as the concealment evaporates, it becomes chesed (loving-kindness), which reveals the Divine Light that is the Face of God.
How could we ever have said that the pain concealed God’s Face? Not only does God say (Psalms 91:15), “I am in pain with him,” but God, blessed be He, endures the brunt of our pain. On the contrary, it is the person who does not accept suffering with acquiescence, God forbid, and thinks that his suffering is unjustified, God forbid, who creates the concealment. It is as if, God forbid, he was doing away with God, as it were.
This is why God says, “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse . . . a blessing if you obey . . . and a curse if you do not obey. . . .” He is showing us the justice and truth in all things—the blessing if you obey and the curse if you do not. The result of this perception will be “Behold, I set before you this day” for you will see that it is “I Who am set before you.” God, blessed be he, is giving Himself, as it were, to us, and so this becomes a revelation of God, Himself, to us.
Furthermore, it is specifically now—in the month of Elul, marking the start of the days of Din (judgment)—that we say, “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.”