No Pain No Gain

(23) Ben He He said: According to the pain is the reward.

"According to the pain is the reward": According to the greatness of the pain, that you endure in the study of Torah and in the performance of the commandments, will your reward be great.

And when we will explain that a person who performs the will of the Omnipresent with pain is closer to Him than one who performs His will without pain, it will thereby be explained that the reward is according to the pain. And this thing is because, when there is an impediment preventing a person from approaching another and he pushes away that impediment with his power, his might and his strong arm, and approaches - you see from this how much his power is to cling there and how close he is to the one he approaches. For behold he pushed off the impediment and approached. And when a person fulfills a commandment even with pain, he brings himself closer to God, may He be blessed, with power and with his might, even in opposition to the impediment. And this thing indicates the great closeness that he has with God, may He be blessed. And when he has great closeness to God, may He be blessed, there is no doubt that the reward will be greater, since reward is only according to the closeness that one has with God, may He be blessed, such that he receives his reward from Him. And this is what he said here, "According to the pain is the reward" - according to the pain is the closeness to God, may He be blessed. For so long as he has pain from the commandment and does the commandment [regardless], the reward is greater. But if he wants to perform the commandment with pain even though he can perform it without pain, it appears that there is no greater reward here. For we have only spoken here about the pain [attached to] an impediment from performing the commandment that he overcomes and [thereby] brings himself closer.

And from this we can understand that lashon hara is certainly forbidden in an instance where only one's personal honor is at stake. As when one is sitting in a company of men and has no way of avoiding them, and they are speaking of things which are forbidden according to the din. If he sits in silence and in no way abets them in their talk, he will be regarded as "crazy." Of this and all such things, Chazal have said "Better that a man be called 'a fool' all of his days rather than be wicked one moment before the L-rd." He must harness all of his powers at that moment to withstand the trial, and [if he does so], he may be completely confident that his reward for this from the Blessed

L–rd will be without end. As Chazal have stated: "According to the strain is the reward."