The Father Who Wakes His Sick Child

To explain suffering, Rav Chaim gave a parable. A child is seriously ill and sunk in a deep sleep, and the doctors warn the father that if the sleep continues the worst may happen. The father must do everything to keep him awake. First he removes the pillow, then he trades the soft bed for a hard couch. Each time the child stirs for a moment and falls back asleep, so the father takes harsher measures, even laying him on a bed of thorns. The father's suffering, as he must act with cruelty out of love, is no less than his son's. When the son is healed, his love and attachment to his father grow even stronger, in gratitude for the pain he was made to endure in order to be saved.