Question & Answer With Ahuva Gray - Solutions Within Obstacles

(Picture by M. Elguero)

A Simple Jew asks:

In your book “Gifts of a Stranger” you wrote,

“I viewed each challenge along the way as an opportunity to break the chains that had shackled my ancestors. When I was blocked from success by some obstacle, I looked to the obstacle itself for the solution; the solution to every trial was interwoven in the trial itself.”

Throughout your life, how exactly were you able to identify the solution as a solution if it was interwoven in the obstacle?

Ahuva Gray answers:

Chazal say that the remedy for our illness is contained in the illness itself. Our rabbis of blessed memory also state that sickness is sent because we have a spiritual weakness that needs to be perfected.

Throughout my life I have always relied upon my davening to help me overcome my obstacles. First, I had to identify the problem through asking Hashem what character trait did I need to develop from a given experience. Once the answer came I would daven and ask Hashem what I needed to learn from the experience. I have always felt that whatever trial the Holy One sends, there is a lesson that I am supposed to learn from the experience that will enhance my middos.

An example of this would be how I feel after every lecture tour that I have been privileged to do. Once I return home, I am so tired and drained of energy that it takes weeks to recover. There has also been a couple of times that I have come down with a flu or virus after a lecture tour.

Now that I have been doing lectures for fifteen years, I realize that in my sickness Hashem is humbling me so that I realize that He is the one that gave me the koach to be successful and to strengthen Klal Yisrael.

Through these experiences, it prevents me from becoming prideful and feeling like I have done something independent of Him. In my humble opinion, whatever I have accomplished in my life is because Hashem gave me the chochmah and strength to persevere.