Some Hasidic masters would often say that if God had merely desired love or study of Torah, he would have created a few million angels to love God and sit and study; but because there is no challenge in this, He does not desire it.
Angels are static; they are what they are and do not change; they are therefore called omdim, “those who stand.”
The pure soul is likewise static; in order that it be truly desirable to God, in order that its service of God should be significant, it requires a challenge, and the animal soul provides this challenge.
Our sages have declared that a person is never subjected to a test that he has not been granted the capacity to meet.
The more difficult the test, the more emphatic is the implied message:
“You have what it takes to overcome this and grow from this.”
—Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz