Life sucks.

To my dear sons:

Life sucks.

Pardon the vernacular.  But that is just a fact. The rabbis even determined, yonks ago, that it would have been better for man not to be created. Because life is very hard, and making it work is one of the hardest things there is.

The House of Shammai and the House of Hillel argued about whether man should have been created.  After a long dispute that lasted years, they agreed that it would have been better for man not to be created, because he suffers so much in this world; but since he was created, he should devote his life to searching his deeds and getting close to G-d.

Life sucks.

But — it’s the only game in town.

Someone I love once told me that this world was too dark and evil to bring children into. Thank G-d, I talked him out of it — and you were all born. Thank G-d.

I have a beautiful daughter-in-law that I almost lost to a horrific car accident yesterday. Somehow, G-d decided that she still has work to do in this world. He even gave us the gift that she was only bruised and beaten up a bit, but not disabled or disfigured. But her car is totaled.  They don’t know how they will survive the financial hardships this has created.

And all I can think about is that she is still in the world, that my son is not a widower, that my grandchildren are not orphans. Nothing else matters. Nothing at all.

I am sending very devoted prayers to Shemayim that they will not need any other tragedies or difficulties to fulfill there mission in this world. My prayers are selfish, I know. I want them to have time to do all of the great and wonderful things that they have ahead of them, together, in good health and happiness.

Money? Yeah, it’s an issue. It’s hard to be broke.

They say that G-d will give us difficulties to overcome in this world, in order to prepare us for the next; and those difficulties will “hit us” in the areas of money, or of health, or of shalom bayit (family harmony).  If You have decreed for us troubles, Hashem, in Your infinite wisdom — may they always only be money troubles.

With our backs together, with our health — we can survive those.

My blessing for my dear daughter-in-law, for my son, and for their children, is that they use this experience to cause them to cling closely together, to love and cherish one another even more, and to gain strength from their ever-growing ability to cope with hardship.

(And Hashem, if You feel like lightening up on them a little, I wouldn’t complain.  Let this be their last great challenge, in a lifetime filled with joyful service of You.  Amen.)