Thanking Hashem for the Struggle: A True Story of Emunah

This story is not about dramatic supernatural miracles. It is a simple and deeply human reminder of how gratitude can change your life and even your spiritual life.

The man at the center of this story, a Jew named Aharon, shared it on The Gratitude Line, Kol Toda. He begins with refreshing honesty:

“I want to say up front that my story isn’t one of open miracles. Nothing suddenly flipped from bad to perfect because I started saying thank You. But I believe there is powerful encouragement here.”

From Top Attorney to Torah Beginner

“I wasn’t born into a Torah observant family,” Aharon explains. “My parents were traditional, but my own connection to Judaism was almost zero.”

Until age 28, he was fully immersed in law studies at Tel Aviv University. He excelled academically and secured a prestigious internship at one of the city’s leading law firms. His intelligence, drive, and persistence quickly propelled him forward. Within a short time, he became a partner. Professional success and financial comfort followed.

Then something unexpected happened.

“By what looked like chance, though nothing is really by chance, I wandered into a rabbi’s class in our office building.”

He was captivated. He kept attending. Soon he enrolled in a Judaism seminar. He began putting on tefillin. He started keeping Shabbat. Gradually, he strengthened in observing Torah and mitzvot.

Eventually, he made a bold decision. He left his comfortable Tel Aviv apartment and his successful legal career. He enrolled in a yeshiva in a northern Jerusalem neighborhood.

“For the first time,” he says, “my soul felt, ‘Here. This finally feels good.’”

The Darkness of Gemara

But one area remained painfully closed to him: learning Gemara.

The rabbis encouraged him to give it time. “It will open up,” they reassured him.

Years passed. Nothing opened.

No matter how many study partners he switched, no matter how many prayers he poured out to Hashem, every time he opened the Gemara, it felt like total darkness.

“I couldn’t make heads or tails of it,” he recalls.

At age 30, he got married. He and his wife built their home in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem. They were blessed with a son and then a daughter. Outwardly, life was beautiful. But inwardly, something gnawed at him.

“I had become observant, yet one thing kept me from full joy. What would be with my Gemara learning?”

Every few months he sought advice from rabbis and revered Torah scholars. “Why won’t my mind open up?” he asked in despair. There were no clear answers. Only growing frustration and a deepening sense of hopelessness.

The Turning Point: Thanking Hashem Anyway

A few years into his marriage, a close friend introduced him to the practice of thanking Hashem for everything, even for what is not working.

“At first, I found it very hard to accept,” Aharon admits. “How do you thank Hashem for something that feels like failure?”

But his friend insisted. “Hashem does only good. Say thank You. It will give you strength to continue.”

He gave Aharon books and recordings about gratitude, about emunah and bitachon, about believing that everything Hashem does is ultimately for the good, even when it looks dark.

Still, the struggle continued. There were moments he wanted to leave kollel entirely. He could not understand how he had once been a successful attorney who won major cases, yet now could not understand even a single page of Gemara.

On the Edge of Jerusalem

One time, after Pesach break, he returned to kollel. He had prayed intensely that at the very least he would not grow angry at his situation.

He was assigned a new study partner. For two hours he stared at him, unable to follow a word. It sounded like a foreign language.

Overwhelmed, he walked out of the building and began walking quickly, without direction. Eventually, he found himself at the edge of the neighborhood, near a cliff overlooking Jerusalem.

It was evening. The city lights shimmered below. A cool breeze brushed his face.

“I knew I wanted to speak to the Creator,” he says, “but I did not know what I would say.”

Then the words came.

“Master of the Universe, thank You.”

He surprised himself.

“Hashem, You probably didn’t expect this from me right now. I don’t understand anything. I don’t know why I keep hitting this wall. But I know that everything You do is for my good. Thank You. Thank You that I do not understand. Thank You that learning Torah is not going for me. Thank You for the struggle. Thank You for the pain.”

As he spoke, something shifted inside him. A deep closeness to Hashem spread through him, unlike anything he had ever felt.

He continued:

“Creator of the world, look at how many brilliant Torah scholars You have across the country and around the world. But look at someone like me. I have fought for years to understand one page of Gemara. And even when I understand nothing, I say thank You.”

A smile slowly spread across his face. The frustration dissolved into immense relief.

There, on that cliff overlooking Jerusalem, he felt that perhaps he would merit something after all.

A Personal Receiving of the Torah

The next day, just before Lag BaOmer, he made a decision. From now on, he would thank Hashem for anything he managed to understand, no matter how small.

To his surprise, something began to open.

“For the first time in my life,” he says, “I felt that through the power of gratitude, I had truly merited to receive the Torah.”

He began to understand. Slowly. Piece by piece. And for each insight, he thanked Hashem with all his heart.

Today, he is finishing the publication of a booklet on the sugyot they are learning in Tractate Shabbat.

“For me,” he says, “this is truly my personal Receiving of the Torah.”

The Power of Gratitude in Jewish Life

Aharon’s story is not about instant miracles. It is about a shift in perspective. It is about choosing gratitude even before seeing results.

In Judaism, thanking Hashem is not only a response to visible blessings. It is a path to closeness, emunah, and inner transformation.

Sometimes the greatest breakthrough does not begin when life changes. It begins when we say thank You even before it does.