“I have not found that accepting Judaism makes a life that is full of happiness and filled with sugar.
It is not like this.
It doesn’t make, by definition, a more enjoyable life.
But it is a better life.
It is like drinking wine.
There are the sweet wines that even children appreciate.
They are very sweet.
They are possibly not wine, but they are sweet.
And red.
But a better wine is far more difficult to appreciate.
It is hard to teach about it.
You have to experience it to understand that it is not as sweet and not as red and not as cheap, but that it is still better.
It is something that one must educate himself about.
Good cooking is not always appreciated.
The better it is, the more you have to learn to appreciate it.
This is possibly true about every form of human achievement.
To appreciate something that is better needs an education.
It needs a certain amount of suffering.
But, when you get there, you understand it.”
From Pebbles of Wisdom fromRabbi Adin Steinsaltz (forthcoming)