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No Pain, No Gain

Question

What is the whole idea of “no pain no gain” in Judaism. Meaning, the more effort, the more sacrifice you make for G-d, the better off you are, the better off you become. Is this true in Judaism? Is it supposed to be hard? Is it good for it to always be hard?

Answer

No, it does not HAVE to be hard. Plus, “hard” is a relative term. For example, it is hard for someone who was not brought up to observe the Torah to forego non-kosher food when visiting a place where kosher food is not readily available, but it is not all that hard for someone brought up observant who does not have a strong “yetzer hara” (negative urge) to eat non kosher.

What is meant by the saying in Pirkei Avos, “l’fum tza’ara agra” – according to the pain is the reward – is not that there must be pain but that there should be effort. The more difficult it is to do a mitzva the greater the reward for that performance. Someone who can do a mitzva without any effort at all will still be rewarded for that mitzva observance but the reward will be less than that of someone who performed the same mitzva after overcoming many obstacles.

Follow-up question

I understand.. But isnt the idea to keep up the ‘struggle’ in order to produce growth? If that’s the case, does there always have to be ‘hard’ in a person’s life, ie: will G-d always send a struggle? (fine, the hard is relative, and so the “struggle” will be relative, but what’s it about? Is it about constant ‘hard’ to ultimately gain eternal good? Does that have to be the formula? I’m wondering if there has to be a genuine experience of struggle in order to be considered serving G-d…..Perhaps what you are referring to is “nisyonos” – tests. In that case, I would say that, yes, G’d is always going to test you. If you pass one test you can expect another one. When G’d stops testing you by placing obstacles on your path to Mitzva observance then it is time to worry. To be able to live one’s life without these tests, one would have to surrender one’s freedom to choose good, like Pharaoh in Egypt, or one’s freedom to choose bad like Moshe.