Tolerating Pain like the Shining Sun

We've been talking about tolerating this week, and Rav Wolbe talks about how to view somebody who is suffering with physical or emotional distress. He brings the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat 88B that discusses.. those are disgraced and don't disgrace others , people that hear the disgrace and don't respond.. As two examples of people that tolerate. This term is used in connection with humble people like Moshe Rabbenu, that were disgraced and didn’t respond. It says, On God, he's disgraced . But then it says, Someone that serves God with love, and he's happy even when he's suffering. The pasuk says on him, they shine like the sun, shining like the sun that’s fully kinetic; it’s not potential at all. It's being brought out totally. One might think, he says, that shining like the sun would be said about someone who’s a super do-er, someone that's fully active, someone like the Energizer battery that doesn't stop, that just like keeps on moving. Yet, it’s this fellow, that's tolerating, whether it's the man tolerating disgrace and insults, or the man that's tolerating yissurim, on whom he says that these are the strongest men of all. Furthermore, the Gemara in Chulin 89A says, The world stands on somebody that's able to muzzle their mouth at a time of argument. So again, that's being Sovel something, to hold it inside. He says, We look at somebody who's suffering ( suffering as in physical and emotional pain) There are people that are, Lo Alenu , depressed, suffering with bipolar or all kinds of emotional illnesses, and they're regular people. They're not crazy. They're people that are suffering with mental illness. And we look at them as, in the Arabic terminology, hazit, or Yiddish, as nebach . You don’t look at them as the strong men. But in Rav Wolbe’s words, It’s possible that man that can tolerate is greater than the greatest activist. He says, God should save us from suffering. But we have to know that the one that's holding (he uses the word holding rather than tolerating), the pain, and holding with happiness is not broken . He is a Gadol of Gedolim. The man that’s lying in bed is not doing anything. But he might be on a higher level than the most wealthy in actions. David Hamelech says in Tehilim 119, 71, טֽוֹב־לִ֥י כִֽי־עֻנֵּ֑יתִי It was good for me that I was suffering, Rashi says It was good in my eyes, Sovel yissurim . In modern Hebrew the the word Sovel has loosely become to suffer (Google translates the words Sovel Yissurim as Suffers agony) but it really means, as we said before, the ability to carry the load of yissurim, tolerate or more correctly, to hold the load of suffering. The greatest of the great are Sovel Yissurim . The Gemara in Sanhedrin says Mashiach is sitting at the gates of Rome, being Sovel our sins. And the Tiferet Yonatan in Bamidbar (chapter 3, pasuk 5) says that Paroah’s reason for not causing the Levyim to be under the heavy load was that he wanted to make sure the Mashiach wouldn't come. The Savior wouldn't come from the Levyim if they were not suffering. And in the words of the Tiferet Yonatan, If he’s not holding or suffering the yissurim of the Jewish people, he’s not fit to be Mashiach. The ultimate greatest man, the Mashiach, is the man who is Sovel Yissurim . So therefore, when we, or others, are being Sovel Yissurim , has v’shalom , we should understand that it's no simple matter. It’s the sun at its brightest. It’s the strongest and greatest level, to be a true Sovel . Have a wonderful day and a Shabbat Shalom.