By the Grace of G-dBrooklyn, N.Y.

...Your recent letter describes your unhappy lifetime experiences, your wanderings and troubles, and your frustrations and disillusionment’s. You are concerned about these things and seek an explanation which will help you understand the suffering and misfortune which has beset you and your family.

Some serious reflection will suggest that you shouldn’t be overly concerned with explanations. A person only sees a limited part of the big picture; he doesn’t really have a true perspective of all the things that happen to him or around him. Furthermore, he has only a limited ability to evaluate the true meaning of the things he does see.

In order to make this concept clearer, I will give you an example from medical practice. An uninformed stranger who enters an operating theater in a hospital will see a helpless, naked man on a table, surrounded by masked men who are armed with knives and other instruments. The masked men cut and stab and draw blood disregarding the moans and pain of the “victim” who is drugged and restrained from moving. The stranger’s natural reaction will be to shout for help: Sadists are attacking a helpless person, they are torturing him deliberately and without mercy. According to the stranger’s perspective and understanding he witnessed an episode of premeditated murder.

But if the stranger knew that the scene he witnessed was really a surgical operation essential to the patient’s life and well being, he could readily understand why the few hours of pain and blood on the operating table were not only endured but necessary. The stranger might then even argue that the surgeons are the greatest humanitarians who are doing the greatest of service to their patient. And this impression will remain even though the doctors are mortal and cannot guarantee a hundred percent recovery, or a successful cure, or how long the patient will live even if the surgery was successful.

From this you may understand that during a person’s life in this world, episodes also occur that involve periods of pain and suffering (real, not imaginary sufferings!). But we also know about and witness Divine Providence, we have the knowledge that there are no “random” occurrences in the world. Such painful episodes are part of a Divine plan, a system which encompasses an individual and his family and every other person, thing and event. The rational person will understand that surely the events that occur to him are actually part of the greater system which controls the world around him. It is only that we don’t receive personal assurances from the “doctor" or the “surgeon” about the great benefits that will arise because of the temporary׳ discomfort and pain.

There are those who question or doubt the Divine System and Plan in our world. But very few question Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy and other Sciences. These sciences tell us that even the smallest atom has its specific organization and its specific function; that every particle of matter obeys definite laws and is part of a defined order — a cosmic order which is much, much more complex than a single person and his family.

In this regard, you may visualize the following picture: You are in a massive building which has thousands of rooms and you can see that the furniture in every room is perfectly arranged. (Even an untrained observer can sense the excellent organization). But in one room — a tiny little room, with strange furnishings — the inherent sense of organization is not immediately apparent. Unless there is evidence to the contrary, most rational people will surely conclude that this room is also properly organized. After all, the gigantic building and the thousands of chambers (with furnishings which can be recognized) are in perfect order; doubtless the individual room with its unique furnishings are also part of the overall plan. The untrained individual might not understand the pattern, but it is part of the larger building...