Chasidut su I Re 17:1

Another way of understanding this line is: “who was it that ‎called Yaakov “El”, i.e. someone equipped with the power to ‎overturn Divine decrees,?” Answer: None other than the G’d of ‎Israel Himself. The emphasis is on the limitation of the ‎‎tzaddik’s power to nullify Divine decrees. If such a decree ‎emanated directly from Hashem, a tzaddik may be able ‎to overturn it. If the decree in question originated in the mind of ‎a tzaddik or even an accredited prophet without the person ‎having been commanded by G’d to relate this decree to the ‎people, another tzaddik is not empowered to cancel it. ‎‎[When Elijah decreed famine for the population of the ‎land of Israel, seeing that G’d had not authorized him to do this, ‎no other prophet could have cancelled this decree. (Kings I 17,1) ‎Ed.]‎

Even when a person suffers great ordeals and afflictions, God can make amends and console him, to the point that he is appeased and consoled over everything he has gone through. Our passage in the Zohar continues: Concerning this, David HaMelech said (Tehillim, 119), “Your mercies are great, O God, give me life according to Your law.” If God is merciful with the wicked, then all the more so with the righteous. Who needs the greatest healing? The ones who are in pain. Who is in pain? The wicked. They need God’s mercy and healing, so as not to be left abandoned… Come and see! It is written (Yeshayahu, 57:17), “He went rebelliously in the way of his heart.” Afterward, it says, “I have seen his ways, and I will heal him, and I will lead him, and I will console to make him and his mourners whole.” “He went rebelliously,” that is to say, even though the wicked do all kinds of intentional sins, pursuing their desires, with others warning them time and again, and the wicked not heeding them, nonetheless, upon returning to the path of God in penance, they will find the healing ready for them to receive. Here we see that God can comfort them over all their suffering. He can return everything to the good, and look forward for the good. This is as our passage in the Zohar concludes: Now that it has come back to him, we clearly see consolation on all sides. Now he is certainly alive – alive in all aspects, grasping onto the Tree of Life. By virtue of grasping onto the Tree of Life, he is called a Master of Repentance (Baal Teshuva). For indeed, Knesset Yisrael⁴³⁹Literally, the entire community of Israel. Symbolically, the Shekhina, and the sefirah of Malkhut. is called teshuva. And he is the “Master of Teshuva.” The ancients said, “[he is] an actual master of Teshuva.” For this reason the sages said, “A perfectly righteous man cannot even stand in the place of greatness where the Baal Teshuva stands.” Even an inkling thought of repentance is not lost from God, as the Zohar says (Terumah, 150b): No good intention is ever lost from before the Holy King. For this reason, fortunate is the man who entertains good thoughts for the sake of his Master! For even if he cannot bring his them to fruition, God considers his intentions as if they had actually been accomplished. This is as it is said in the Zohar (Mishpatim, 99b): Everything in the world, no matter how small, has a place where it can stand and hide, a refuge to enter into and never be lost … These are the great powers of the Holy Supernal King, and nothing is lost. Even a fleeting breath has a place, and the God does with it that which He will. Even man’s slightest word is not in vain, for everything has a place. Even all of the pain that man suffers will not be ignored by God. God will comfort every soul that suffers. Since God knows the final purpose of everything, and that it is better for the creation to have been created than not. He shows this understanding to a person’s soul while he is still in potential, before he enters the world. Then the soul agrees that it is better for him to be created, as it is written in the Zohar (Vayehi, 233b): But come and see! Before they descend into the world, all the souls that exist from the very first day of creation stand before God, in the very form that they will take on after they come into the world. They stand above in a body that looks just like the body they will enter. When the time comes for this soul to descend into the world, the soul stands before the Holy One, blessed be He, in the exact form it will take on when it enters the world. At this time, God has the soul swear that it will keep the commandments of the Torah, and not transgress the statutes of the Torah. From where do we derive that the soul stands in this way before God? As it is written (Melachim 1, 17:1), “I swear by the Living God, whom I stood before…” God shows the soul its entire structure, his characteristics, abilities, and even its physical attributes. The soul agrees to it all, down to the last detail. From man’s point of view, it is difficult to understand how the soul could agree to all of the pain it will have to endure in this world. Before the soul descends into this world it has not yet sinned, so why doesn’t it stay safely where it is, before it has to incur punishment? Why would it intentionally enter a world where it has no choice but to suffer?