Rava said something that rabbis are not supposed to say. "Life, children, and sufficient livelihood," he taught, "do not depend on merit. They depend on mazal — on the star under which one is born" (Moed Katan 28a).
To prove it, he pointed to two of the holiest men of his generation.
Rabbah and Rav Chisda were both righteous sages. Both prayed for rain in a drought, and rain came for both. Their merits before heaven were equal. And yet Rav Chisda lived to ninety-two, while Rabbah died at forty. Rav Chisda attended sixty weddings in his family; Rabbah suffered sixty serious illnesses in his. In Rav Chisda's house even the dogs turned up their noses at bread made of fine wheat flour. In Rabbah's house they could not always get rough barley bread.
Same merit. Radically different lives.
Rava went further. "For three things I prayed," he confessed. "Two were given, one was denied. I prayed for the wisdom of Rav Huna, and it was granted. I prayed for the wealth of Rav Chisda, and it was granted. I prayed for the humility and gentleness of Rabbah bar Rav Huna — and that was refused."
The teaching is unsettling and liberating. Rava is not saying that righteousness is pointless. He is saying that not every good life arrives as a reward, and not every hardship is a punishment. Some things are simply handed to us, and what we owe God is not a ledger of earnings but the daily labor of doing right inside whatever portion we receive.