Finding Joy Amidst Life's Challenges

Life is a delicate balance between joy and challenge. How can we remain joyful when difficulties arise, especially when events beyond our control disrupt our lives? Consider a successful business owner whose factory burns down just after insurance expires, or heaven forbid, a personal tragedy. These are real tests of faith and resilience.

There Is a Time for Everything

Let us first acknowledge the heavier challenges. As it is written in Kohelet, “There is a time for everything… a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” This teaches us that every emotion has its proper place. There is a time to mourn the destruction of the Temple on Tisha B’Av and a time to anticipate the joy of redemption, when “our mouths will be filled with laughter” (Tehilim 126:2).

Grief itself is guided by Torah wisdom. The Gemara teaches, “Do not weep for the dead excessively,” establishing limits for mourning: three days of crying and seven days of eulogy (Moed Katan 27b). Even pain has a boundary, and the Torah does not want a person to remain trapped in sorrow beyond its appropriate time.

The Difference Between Pain and Distress

Yet beyond those designated times of mourning, we are encouraged to strive for joy even amid hardship. Hashem gave us the inner strength to endure.

Rabbi Shach, in Avi Ezri, offers a powerful insight based on the verse, “Many evils and troubles will come upon them…” (Devarim 31:17). He explains that “evils” refers to the events themselves, while “troubles” refers to the emotional distress that follows when a person lacks faith in Hashem. The event may be unavoidable, but the suffering that follows is often shaped by our perspective.

Those who recognize that everything occurs under divine providence find that their inner turmoil softens. As King David said, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Tehilim 23:4). The situation remains, but the heart transforms.

Seeing Hashem’s Hand in Everything

Joy and suffering can coexist. What determines which dominates is our mindset.

A moving illustration is found in the story of the great tzadik, the author of Divrei Chaim of Tzanz. Upon the passing of his young child, he said, “If a friend pats you on the shoulder, it is a gesture of closeness.” He understood that even pain comes from Hashem, whose essence is eternal love. This awareness reshapes how a person experiences life’s hardships (Gittin 36b).

Hardships can also serve as spiritual cleansing. Our ultimate purpose is not comfort in this world alone but closeness to Hashem in the world to come. The Gemara teaches, “Sufferings cleanse all of a person’s sins” (Brachot 5a). Afflictions in this world can refine and purify, sparing a person from greater spiritual suffering later.

Choosing Gratitude and Meaning

True happiness is not built on wealth, success, or uninterrupted ease. It grows from meaning, faith, and the awareness that our lives are guided with purpose.

When we cultivate gratitude and focus on the good Hashem continually bestows upon us, our perspective shifts. Instead of viewing life through a lens of lack, we begin to see blessing. And when we internalize that even hardship flows from divine love and wisdom, we can live with a deeper, more resilient joy.

This is not denial of pain, but elevation of perspective. Through faith, gratitude, and trust, life becomes not only bearable, but profoundly meaningful.