Rav Shlomo Katz and the chevra of Shirat David learn a short but searing letter from Reb Usher Freund about what happens when pain starts to crumble. Writing to a woman trapped in an agunah reality, Reb Usher validates the anguish, and then reframes it: pain can be a cleansing wash (רחיצת שמלה) that scrubs away stains; the process still hurts, but accepted with love it stops being torture and begins to reveal Or Shivat HaYamim (the primordial “seven-day light). “Ketz sam la’choshech”— there is an end to darkness, and it arrives faster when we choose patience, prayer, and love over despair and victim-identity.

Topics include:

• “Ketz la’choshech” is real: why every darkness has an end even when you can’t imagine it.
• The wash-metaphor: רחיצה מכאיבה—how cleansing pain works, and how קבלה באהבה changes the experience (not always the facts).
• Validation before mussar: being seen as the gateway to healing influence.
• Pain vs. suffering: pain can be involuntary; suffering is often a choice of stance.
• Birth pangs & geulah: why labor-level pain hints at a light that follows.
• Where בחירה sits: tending to my nefesh and avodah even when others misuse theirs.
• From “worshipping the wound” to Bnei Emunah—trading victimhood for partnership with Hashem.

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 For more Shiurim and Music from Rav Shlomo Katz, visit: https://ravshlomokatz.com

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