Life is filled with challenges. Some people face greater or more difficult challenges than others. We must work towards overcoming them, even though we may fail in our attempt.

These challenges are sometimes called nisyonot and in Judaism in which we are challenged to be able to accomplish things that keep seeming to evade us.

This may be compared to the well-known Biblical book of Job - Iyov - in which he was given many trials in order to prove his devotion to G-d. Iyov's persistence should be a fine or should serve as a banner for the rest of us. We should see the way he is and make an effort to emulate his actions ourselves.

At the end of the book of Iyov we do read that he was repaid for his persistence and for his ability to remain devoted to G-d. Various questions may arise such as: Was he really repaid after all? In his old age he was given the things that he tried to have when he was younger. By then he was not young enough to be able to appreciate them in the same way and other such questions.

These questions, however, are not for us to ask. It is wrong for us to look into the issue in that way and it is not for us to understand as mortals to understand why these things happened the way the do and how he is indeed repaid.

Others may point to this world as the world of untruth, Olam ha-Sheker, and as the world to come as Olam ha-Emet, the world of truth, in which everything will be understood. In some cases people may be consoled that their suffering will be paid off or be made worthwhile or rewarded even in the world to come.

This too can lead to a problematic situation in which we rejoice in the suffering as it "is worth it" because we will get repaid for the suffering later on when it supposedly counts.

However, again, this is a dangerous approach because we are not in a position to determine whether our own suffering is this suffering that will be repaid or will not be repaid in the world to come. It is difficult for us to make the calculations and assumptions that we understand what G-d is doing and why.