Hashem spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying (Bamidbar 3:14)

The Ramban asks on this verse, “How could it be that Shevet Levi had the least amount of children? They were the tribe that were devoted to the service of Hashem more than the other tribes. Shouldn’t they have the most bracha (children)?”

The story is told that when the Chofetz Chaim was looking for a shidduch for himself, his mother and stepfather wanted him to marry his stepsister. However, his brothers recognized in him the potential to be a gadol b’Yisrael, and therefore felt that it was important for him to marry someone who came with a dowry that would enable him to sit and learn. Nevertheless, the Chofetz Chaim himself decided to marry his stepsister because he felt that the relationship between his parents would possibly be affected if he didn’t marry her. As we know, with help from Heaven, they raised a wonderful family.

I heard in the name of Rav Pam that the reason the Chofetz Chaim was the one who did the bookkeeping for the family store was not because of his lack of trust in his wife, as she was scrupulous about money matters. Rather, it was because she didn’t even know the simple arithmetic needed to do the bookkeeping. The Chofetz Chaim himself later said that he was able to learn and grow specifically because he married this particular person (rather than the many other suggestions that he received from wealthier families).

There is another story told about the grandfather of the Beis Halevi, who was a very wealthy man, a big baal tzedakah, and was known far and wide to be spectacular in all aspects of his avodas Hashem. Yet, he suddenly lost all of his money. This caused a stir in the neighborhood, as people wondered, “Why would Hashem do such a thing?!” The pressure was so great that the dayanim of the city went through his books to see if there was any illicit activity. The only ‘misdemeanor’ that they could find was that he gave too much charity! The Beis Din closed the case, totally baffled, and said that giving too much tzedakah doesn’t seem to be the reason that he should have a change in fortune. When the Beis Halevi grew up, groomed by his grandfather, one of the dayanim said, “I now understand. It would not have been possible to have a great tzaddik and Talmud chacham grow out of a family with opulence and wealth. The Gemora says (Nedarim 81a) that one should be cautious with poor people’s children, because Torah will come from them.

The Ramban answers his question by saying that though it is true that the Shevet Levi excelled in their service of Hashem, the blessing of having so many children was only given to those who suffered from the back-breaking labor in Egypt. It was not that the Levi’im were punished, rather they didn’t merit the blessing because they didn’t suffer at the hands of the Egyptians.

I think it is important that we as parents not always shelter our children and try to protect those whom we love from going through difficult experiences. In truth, many trying experiences end up being building blocks, teaching our children (and us) how to deal with life and preparing us for the future.

Imagine a child whose parents never let him play a game as they wanted to prevent the child from the disappointment of losing. It is obvious that in real life when such a child will have disappointments, they will not know how to deal with them. I am not suggesting that we should teach them to fail in order to harden them for the “world of hard knocks”, but there is a silver lining to suffering that must be recognized.

When we find ourselves in situations where we wonder “why am I having this trauma?”, we should keep in mind that perhaps this is the key that will allow us to grow and multiply six-fold over others!