Chazal (Ta'anis 24b) introduce us to the great tanna R' Chanina ben Dosa with the following two stories. (There are several stories about the R' Chanina ben Dosa on the very next daf, but these are more about putting him in context.)
First: R' Chanina ben Dosa was once walking home and it started to rain. He said, "Master of the World! The whole world is comfortable and Chanina is in distress." It stopped raining. He got home and said, "Master of the world! The whole world is in distress, and Chanina is in comfort." It started to rain.
Second: Every day an announcement goes out from heaven: The whole world is nourished because/for the sake of Chanina ben Dosa, and one measure of carob every week suffices for My son Chanina.
I was bothered by these two gemaras. It seems more than a little petty for anyone to be willing to have the whole world suffer just so he doesn't get his feet wet! Moreover, this is a person who seems to be living on a subsistence diet and yet damp tootsies is what gets him groaning? If he is so hungry, why doesn't he pray for more food? And if his prayers can't get him a decent meal, how in the world can they stop the rains from coming?!
I asked around and got a lot of answers that just didn't sit well with me. The basic issues with all the answers I got was that they tried to make his discomfort in the rain into a big deal. On the other hand, they ignored his hunger pangs. I was undaunted. I had access to an Otzer S'farim; thousands of s'farim that are computer searchable. I spent a couple of hours looking through the 100s of references to Chanina ben Dosa. I feel I have a good understanding, though it is more of a composite than what any one source said.
In the first place, when the gemara says that one measure of carob each week דיו/suffices for him, it does not mean that he was subsisting. It meant what it said, R' Chanina ben Dosa was satisfied with that; he didn't want any more. A lifetime of working on himself to be satisfied with a small amount had worked. He was satisfied and really didn't want more.
The s'farim also note that the gemara uses the word בשביל/"for the sake of" to make another point: that HaShem's nourishing of R' Chanina ben Dosa created a שביל/pathway by which nourishment reached the entire world. R' Chanina ben Dosa certainly understood that point. Not a matter of arrogance, just the facts of the case.
Now let's understand what happened on that rainy day. R' Chanina ben Dosa was walking along and felt the rain. He thought: Oh no! If I feel the slightest distress, then the pathway by which the world gets nourished will become narrower. He knew that the world could not be in comfort if he was feeling distress. Therefore he asked for nice weather to get home in order that the infusion of bracha should continue to flow. Once he get home, he knew that fields needed water and he felt distressed for the world, so it started to rain.
Let's read that gemara again, punctuated and translated according to our new understanding literal words in bold). On the way he said, "Master of the world! Is it possible that the whole world is in comfort when Chanina feels distress? I know that cannot be, so please restrain the rains for a few minutes. " Once home he said, "Master of the world! With the whole world in distress, is it possible for Chanina to feel at ease? I know that cannot be, so please let rain fall where it is needed."
As usual, we need to abandon our way of viewing the world and see the world through the lens that Chazal give us.
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