Berakhot 5
Hama said that Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: One should always try to subdue his evil inclination. If he succeeds, great. But if he does not, he should study Torah. If Torah doesn’t work, he should recite the Shema. And if all else fails, he should remind himself of the day of his death. I am struggling with this: ”Yet in whom the Lord delights, He oppresses him with disease; to see if his soul would offer itself in guilt, that he might see his children, lengthen his days, and that the desire of the Lord might prosper by his hand” (Isaiah 53:10). This verse illustrates that in whomever God delights, he afflicts with illness. Does this mean that those of us that have serious diseases have been chosen by God to demonstrate that we can overcome them through prayer? What about the righteous people who suffer from disease but are religious and die too soon anyway, or those that are not religious at all but still do good deeds in the world? Does this say that God demonstrates that he delights in us through disease? It’s a difficult passage.