When life is bitter, it’s not sweet
By zevi770 · March 1, 2012
Does it really take a Rabbi to say when life is bitter it is not sweet?
But a greater man than me said something similar “I have seen light is better than darkness.”
What does this mean?
What is the theory of relativity?
E=mc2?
They say only a dozen people really ever understood the theory of relativity and it seems that I may be part of that dozen.
You see, the theory of relativity is best described by Einstein himself and ironically it has more to do with psychology than physics.
Einstein said (something to this effect) when asked to explain the theory of relativity for the layperson “when you are sitting on a hot plate a minute feels like an hour, but if you are having an enjoyable conversation with a pretty woman an hour feels like a minute.”
The theory of relativity was the first to advance the notion that the physical world is not what we see it to be, rather what we perceive it to be, and perception is relative.
Hence the statement of King Solomon, I have seen that light is better than darkness.
In other words, the wisest of men was teaching, man only appreciates light if he has been in darkness first.
And I, the foolishist of men say, When life is bitter its not sweet.
In other words, when we are not perceiving the sweetness of life, it is then that we perceive its bitterness.
This is the millennial challenge of Judaism for there is both bitterness and sweetness in life – only in the era of Moshiach will all tears be removed forevermore – hence until then we have a choice to remind ourselves as a Jew should every morning of all our blessings, to seek as Einstein taught “there are only two ways to live life, one as though everything is a miracle the other as though nothing is” – so to remind ourselves everything good in our life actually was miraculously given to us.