Shalom and thank you for your question, or rather questions. You have touched on many issues. Fairness in life is a big issue and much has been said and written on the subject, it really warrants a separate article but I will try to address it minimally.
Another issue you have brought up is prayer.
When we pray, there’s a basic premise, and that basic premise is that we believe that everything, and that’s unequivocally everything, that G-d does is for our good. Ultimately. Even if we don’t see it now. It sometimes appears that there are more unfair things going on around us than fair. Nevertheless, if we delve deeper, we see that even people who have endured terrible suffering have been able to see it in a positive way and perceive the ‘small’ blessings along the way, or the hidden ones. So when we pray, we are trusting in G-d that He is listening, first of all. Secondly we trust that G-d wants us to have good. There is another Baal Shem Tov story which illustrates this. There was a poor Jewish inn-keeper who was very sincere and uncomplaining. One day the Baal Shem Tov arrived at his inn with a group of his disciples, and requested drinks. The inn-keeper felt that this must be a pious Rabbi, and he went to pawn some item of value that was still left in his home, in order to purchase brandy or vodka, as well as some basic food items. He served the honored guests, and they ate and drank, and stayed over for several days. The inn-keeper kept selling or pawning, until nothing was left. Then the Baal Shem Tov took his disciples, got into his carriage, and rode off into the sunset… The inn-keeper sent his children to bed desperately hungry, and raised his voice to the Heavens. He was not angry, but he did realize that he could not go on like that. His children needed to eat. He begged G-d to have mercy on them. There was a knock on the door, and into the inn came a local peasant. He greeted the inn-keeper and requested a drink. Thinking quickly, the inn-keeper went aside and collected the leftover drops of vodka from the cups of the Baal Shem Tov and his students, and managed to present the peasant with a full cup. The peasant downed it gratefully, and gave the inn-keeper a gold coin. This was a big enough sum of money to buy food for a few days and some drink to sell. The inn-keeper was very grateful. This scenario repeated itself a few times, until one day, the peasant came into the inn in a dishevelled state, dirty and bleeding. “My cursed son beat me up!” he shouted. “Come with me!” He motioned to the inn-keeper to follow him into the woods, where he showed him a hollowed out tree in which there was a treasure. “This is for you,” he told the inn-keeper. “My son doesn’t deserve it.” The peasant died from the beating he had received from his son, and the inn-keeper was able to use the money he had left him and build up his business, becoming wealthy in the process. He did not stop being sincere and he was very charitable. Some time later, he arrived to visit the Baal Shem Tov and donate to his charitable causes. He did not know beforehand that the Rabbi who had stayed over at the inn and eaten him out of house and home was the Baal Shem Tov. When he received his audience with the Baal Shem Tov, he received an explanation as well. “You see.” said the Baal Shem Tov,” “G-d actually had much wealth waiting for you, but he needed you to ask for it.”
So how do we reconcile these two stories? The question is what each one comes to teach us. Torah in Hebrew comes from the word Hora’ah, teaching. The story with the inn-keeper teaches us the value of sincere prayer, which has the potential to draw down abundant blessings, and also that even in a case where it may seem as if the situation could just about not get worse, G-d may have very good things in store for us around the bend.
The story you mentioned can perhaps teach us about a different kind of situation. Sometimes for reasons that we cannot understand, it is a matter of a greater or a lesser ‘evil’. When we pray, it must be with trust that what G-d is doing is for the good, and we can and should ask for good things, but with the realization that sometimes the answer might be ‘no’. A pious Jew once asked a certain Tzadik for a blessing for children. The Tzadik refused to bless him, and he eventually ended up in a different city for business reasons. The Pesach seder was coming up, and he needed a place to stay. The local Rabbi was also a Tzadik, and very poor. Our businessman had an idea. He approached the Rabbi’s wife, asking to be a guest at their seder table, but he also promised her that he would provide everything that was needed. Indeed when the Tzadik came home from the prayer service, he found a well-lit house, sparkling with beautiful vessels and a lavish spread. He was so happy and grateful to the guest that he offered to bless him with whatever he requested. Eagerly the businessman shared his wish to be blessed with children. The Tzadik saw that it had not been intended in Heaven for this man, but he had promised, so he blessed him and the decree was changed. The descendants of this businessman slandered two pious Jewish brothers who ran a printing establishment to the authorities, with false accusations, and the brothers were brutally punished.
Finally I will share another story, regarding fairness.
A great sage was granted the privilege of accompanying the prophet Elijah on his travels, on the condition that he watch and listen, but not ask questions. They first visited a delightful elderly couple who owned a cow, and that was their sole source of income. The couple welcomed them and shared whatever they had with Elijah and the sage. As they left the next day, the sage heard Elijah pray that the cow should die! The sage remembered not to ask, but it bothered him terribly. They then came to a town where they were wealthy people, and attended services in the synagogue. No one invited the wayfarers to partake of anything or stay over anywhere. When they left that town, Elijay prayed that everyone in that town would become a leader! I do not remember all the stations in the story, but another was that the travellers reached the home of a wealthy man, where a wall in his home was being rebuilt. The wealthy man also did not treat them nicely at all, and when they left, Elija hprayed that the wall should miraculously be completed, without the wealthy man having to do anything more. At some point in the storey, the sage could no longer hold his peace. Elijah agreed to explain, although they would now have to part ways. With the generous couple, there was a decree that the wife should die. Elijah therefore prayed that the cow should be taken in her stead, because of her generosity. In the town of wealthy misers, he prayed that they should all be leaders, because that would cause them anguish, each person would want to be ‘the’ leader, and no one would want to submit himself to the other. With the wealthy man and the wall, the story is that non-Jewish people who left Israel when the Jewish people conquered it, had concealed their treasures inside the walls, and G-d intended the Jews to discover these treasures and use them. Elijah prayed that the miserly man should miss his treasure because the wall would be completed before he could discover the treasure.
We regular people are not gifted with the prophetic insight to know and understand HaShem’s ways.
The moral of your story is that we must be sincere and trust in G-d. When we do that, we actually open up a channel of Divine blessings and bring about changes for the better, even if it is not always apparent. I hope this helps a little!
