Suffering part 6

There is a fundamental difference in the perception of G-d between the philosophers and the mystics. RAMBAM writes that G-d is essentially unknowable. We can't speak of His attributes except in negatives. That is, when we say "He's good", that is a limiting, and essentially a blasphemous statement. When we say it, we really mean that he is not what we perceive as  the opposite of what we call good. The Kabbalists, however, say that G-d DOES have attributes. In fact, our human attributes are pale reflections of His attributes. Even our bodies are reflections of attributes of G-d. This is the understanding of Job's statement "From my flesh, I see G-d"; that is, by understanding my body, my mind, my soul, I begin to perceive the realities of G-d. For the philosophers, speaking of Divine pain or anguish would be unthinkable. For the mystic, our human pain, personal or collective, reflects G-d's pain. Pain over what? Any parent can tell you how much it hurts to see our children doing physically or spiritually harmful actions, or having them done to him or her. Every parent can tell you how the pain of our child, at any age, hurts us far more than it hurts the child. So when G-d sees his children in pain, He, too, is pained. The Bible often talks of G-d's sadness at our behavior. There is even a verse "In all our troubles, he is troubled". In my essay on Kabbalah, I spoke of the concept of "Galut HaShechinah"; the Exile of the Divine presence. Through Man's negative actions, there is, as it where, a "disconnect" within G-d; similar to the disconnect between two people who have loved each other but have become estranged, or within the soul of a person deeply divided within himself. When the Jews were exiled from Spain, after centuries of peace and prosperity, the philosophers had no answer as to why. The Kabbalists said that Israel is living out, on the worldly plane, what G-d is experiencing on the Divine plane. As we connect with Him, so is true unity and peace achieved within ourselves, within G-d, within the Universe. When our child finds him or her self, we find peace, and see our lives as complete. On an infinitely higher level, that is how G-d feels. There is a Talmudic statement that when we suffer, the Divine Presence says "My head hurts, my arm hurts". There is pain within G-d. The Kabbalists ask, why 'head' and 'arm'?. That is where we put on the tefillin; connecting our minds and hearts to G-d. If those are disconnected, so are G-d's! If we truly love someone, we know, without a word being spoken, when they are in pain, and when they're experiencing joy. In a similar way, our pain can be a reflection of G-d's pain, our joy, a reflection of His joy. When we lift ourselves "out of the dung heap" we lift G-d out of the dung heap! In this sense, suffering is telling us to reconnect with G-d, reconnect with our true selves, thereby easing our suffering...and His! When we pray, when we study His Torah, when we do His mitzvot, suffering is replaced by joy, alienation by connectedness. May we all be connected with G-d, connected with each other, connected within ourselves! May we know joy and peace!