The Hebrew word for world ("olam") comes from the word for hidden. What is hidden, of course, is the true innermost Godliness in ourselves and in the world. And what impels us to reveal this inner truth, to strip away the barriers which hide the Godliness in ourselves and in the world? Often, it is pain and disappointment which create a yearning for more than the satisfactions which the physical world can provide.

Suffering has the power to bring into actuality that which is dormant in ourselves. But in order for our potential for revelation of Godliness to be realized, we must practice certain spiritual disciplines, such as compassion, forgiveness, giving the benefit of the doubt and having faith in the midst of pain.

When things are going well, we tend to fall asleep spiritually, for we don't feel any strong need for God. But when we are in pain, we see that the people and pleasures of this world cannot provide enduring satisfaction, only temporary escape. The resulting emptiness can cause us to sink into despair, or it can make us want to attach ourselves to something greater. Disappointment and loss teach us that we will never be truly happy as long as we seek only to satisfy our personal, materialistic desires. True joy comes when we attach ourselves to a goal which is greater than ourselves, which pulls us up and elevates us beyond our self-absorption and misery.

For ordinary people, who might not experience how spiritually deficient we are when everything is going our way, pain is often the only thing that forces us to make that extreme effort, to try to understand and to cry out in anguish, "Why did this happen to me? What do You want of me? What do I have to do to stop suffering?" It is always from the depths that this cry is made. The cry is the first step to an expansion of consciousness.

When we reject the painful events which God gives us, it is as if we are rejecting God. It is the essence of faith to realize that, "There is no place devoid of Him" (Tikkunei Zohar 57:91b). Nothing God does is meaningless or unfair, except that we are so limited by our finite intelligence that events often appear that way.

People who have never suffered major losses are sometimes terribly arrogant, shallow, insensitive and lacking in compassion. So it must be that those who suffer many losses are meant to develop the opposite traits: humility, depth, sensitivity and compassion. When we suffer a loss, our task is to strengthen our ties to God.

We are told that our Matriarchs - Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel - were barren for so many years because God wanted their prayers, the kind of prayers only someone in an intense state of longing can offer. When Rachel realized that she could not rely on Jacob's prayer, she proceeded to pray on her own behalf. When she gave birth, she credited God alone for having given her a child. (Genesis 30:22-23)

It is natural to ignore God when things are going smoothly and to think that it is through our own efforts that we are successful. Our natural tendency is to forget the Source of our abundance and to complain about what we lack. It takes extreme effort to constantly remember Who sustains us, because the awareness slips away time after time.

The strength of a relationship is determined by the one who wants it least. You can love a person, but if that person wants nothing to do with you, then there is no relationship. Similarly, God loves us. He wants a 100 percent relationship with us. But we are often too busy with other things. When we cry out to Him, we have the beginning of a relationship.