Is Suffering a Punishment from God?

Punishment from God is among the many theories people have come up with for why we suffer, i.e. that God punishes us for certain actions we have (or have not) done either in our current life, or in past lives. However, aside from theories, nobody really knows why we suffer.

Especially in our current times, we can see that we are globally interdependent and interconnected. The more we develop, the more our global interdependence reveals to us.

We live in a single global system, and we each share a mutual responsibility for the well-being of the entire system.

We live in a single global system, and we each share a mutual responsibility for the well-being of the entire system.

Similarly to how our bodies work, we feel a wound in our pinky toe as a pain throughout our whole body, and if it is a major wound, then it demands our complete attention. That is how we increasingly reveal ourselves in our world today.

If we comprehended and felt the full extent of our interdependence, then we would quickly conclude that we need to fix our connections: to upgrade our attitudes to each other as to members of a single family—and even closer. If we do, then we will start sensing that we live in an absolutely perfect world, free from suffering.

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How Can I Cope with the General Dissatisfaction I Feel about My Life?

Thousands of years of human progress, and what do we get?

We can get any material thing we want, but remain dissatisfied.

In any case, we play the game and chase transient pleasures. What else can we do?

We actually built our whole lives on the real distraction—distracting ourselves from what is most important. That is what we will come to understand.

We look at each other and thoughtlessly follow the current trend. We think that if we act like everyone else, we’ll feel good. So we select our goals from a smorgasbord of material forms of food, sex, family, money, honor, control and knowledge. We pursue them, hoping to escape the emptiness.

We keep ourselves busy so that the base question about our existence—”What is the meaning of life?”—doesn’t appear in the cracks of our self-centered hearts.

Sooner or later, however, the deepest question about the purpose of our existence will awaken to distract us from our rat race.

But what is the real distraction?

We actually built our whole lives on the real distraction—distracting ourselves from what is most important. That is what we will come to understand.

As long as we close our eyes to avoid truly seeing, we can run along with the crowd. But eventually, exhaustion sets in. We start feeling the meaninglessness, emptiness and dissatisfaction of trying to keep up with the ever-accelerating pace of the materialistic treadmill.

Welcome to the new desire that is evolving within humanity: the desire for life’s ultimate meaning and purpose.

As we have taught ourselves to succeed and find our place in our materialistic world, we need to start learning about the new desire emerging in us: what exactly it is, why it is emerging today, where it comes from, and most importantly, how we can guide it to its fulfillment.

The time has come when we need to wake up from our dreams of pursing self-interest at any expense. As we have taught ourselves to succeed and find our place in our materialistic world, we need to start learning about the new desire emerging in us: what exactly it is, why it is emerging today, where it comes from, and most importantly, how we can guide it to its fulfillment.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, this desire to discover the meaning of life is called “the point in the heart.” The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method that was made specifically for fulfilling this desire.