Question

Question

I work in a psychiatric hospital. And I would like to understand about these mentally ill children, what kind of Souls they are?

Reply to Rav Sherka

This could be for various reasons:

•For the sins of parents

•Correction of what happened in a past life

• To enable parents and society to show care and mercy.

•Other reasons that we don't know and can't find out.

Rav Holander's answer

Such questions are very difficult, they call into question our ability to understand and explain everything. About fifty years ago, a rabbi in America published a book called WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE. Moses, our teacher, also wanted an answer to this question, and the Almighty told him, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have mercy on whom I have mercy” (Exodus 33:19). It follows from this that not everyone is rewarded with the mercy of the Almighty.

Rav Soloveichik asked the same question. His wife suffered from cancer for many years. And he also does not have a definitive answer to the question "Why?" But, if I understand his approach correctly, he says: one should not ask why, but one should ask oneself what can I do in the situation that has arisen, how can I serve God in the place where I am.

And a person who works with sick children knows the answer to this question.