“The Creator is meticulous with the righteous as a hairsbreadth” (Yevamot 121b).
When a person is in a state of “righteous,” when he is in ascent, He is meticulous with him that his aim will be for the sake of the Creator, meaning not to take this ascent as support and say, “Now I see that it is worthwhile to serve the Creator,” since now he feels pleasure in his work. It follows that this is not for the sake of the Creator because it is not the faith in the Creator that makes him be a servant of the Creator, but rather the pleasure is the cause.
So what does the Creator do? He drops him from his high state into a state of lowliness. It follows that he is punished on the spot. This is the meaning of the words, “It is very stormy around Him,” meaning that the Creator is meticulous with the time of righteousness.
But when a person is in a state of lowliness, when he does not feel a good taste in the work, it is pointless to be meticulous with him because he is in lowliness anyhow, and he has work to approach the Creator. Hence, it cannot be said that He will deny him the flavor of the work because now he feels no flavor.
The blow that one receives from the Creator, when He takes from him the flavor of the work, by this itself He heals him because then he has no other way to serve the Creator but with faith above reason. It follows that the blow that he received from the Creator, from this itself he can be healed, for otherwise, he will remain in separation.
By this we understand what our sages said, that by the blows of the Creator, He heals (Mechilta BeShalach). In other words, this is the healing—that He gives him room to work with faith without any support.
Also, we should understand what our sages said, “The Creator makes a decree and a righteous revokes it” (Moed Katan, 16). This means that the Creator makes a decree, taking from him the pleasure of the work, and there is no harsher decree than taking from someone the vitality in the work.
But the righteous revokes it. That is, if a person says he wants to work without any reward of vitality and pleasure, then the decree is revoked in any case. Moreover, now he rises to a higher degree, for now he is in a state of pure faith and is regarded as having no self-interest.