The Art of Happiness

e painful, but like the pain a woman experiencesin childbirth, we trust that the pain will beoutweighed by the ultimate good it produces. Thechallenge in these traditions lies in the fact that,unlike in childbirth, the ultimate good is often notrevealed to us. Still, those with a strong faith inGod are sustained by a belief in God’s ultimatepurpose for our suffering, as a Hasidic sageadvises, “When a man suffers, he ought not tosay, ‘That’s bad! That’s bad!’ Nothing Godimposes on man is bad. But it is all right to say,‘That’s bitter! That’s bitter!’ For amongmedicines there are some that are made withbitter herbs.” So, from the Judeo-Christianperspective, suffering can serve many purposes: itcan test and potentially strengthen our faith, it canbring us closer to God in a very fundamental andintimate way, or it can loosen the bonds to the