Rabbi Eliezer taught about the meaning of suffering by turning to the book of Proverbs. He cited the verse: "The chastisement of the Lord, my son, do not despise" (Proverbs 3:11). The passage continues: "For whom the Lord loves He chastises, as a father, the son whom he favors" (Proverbs 3:12).
The image is unmistakable. A father who disciplines his child does so out of love, not cruelty. The child who receives correction is not the rejected one — he is the favored one. The father who does not bother to discipline has already given up. It is precisely the child whom the father cherishes most who receives the most attention, the most guidance, and yes, the most rebuke.
Rabbi Eliezer then asks the pointed question: what caused this son to conciliate his father? What brought about the reconciliation and the deepened bond between parent and child? His answer: afflictions. It was the very experience of suffering, of being disciplined, that drew the son closer to his father.
This teaching from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael frames divine affliction as an act of intimacy. God does not chastise from a distance or out of anger. Like a father correcting a beloved son, God's discipline is personal, purposeful, and rooted in care. The affliction is not the opposite of love — it is the evidence of love. And the result of enduring that discipline is not resentment but reconciliation. The suffering becomes the bridge that brings the person back into alignment with the divine, closer than before the affliction began.