Yesterday I wrote a post about everything being for the good. Interestingly, today when I opened my daily message from Neale Donald Walsch he had written something very similar. He said God wanted me to know:
…that it sometimes looks like “one thing after the other,” but really, it is Blessing After Blessing.
I know, I know…you don’t experience it that way. But that’s because you don’t see it that way. In this business of life, “What you see is what you get.”
If you think you are looking at struggle, struggle is what you will experience. If you decide that you are looking at a gift (even if you can’t see it clearing in this exact moment), a gift is what you will get. Just wait. You’ll see. I mean that literally. You will see.
I believe we get messages for a reason. I don’t always open Neale’s emails. I only open them on some days. The fact that I opened this email the day after I wrote a post about seeing everything that happens as “for the good” strikes me as quite synchronistic. I’ll take that to mean I’m on to something: I–we–should all try harder to see the blessing (the good) in all that happens to us. And not only will we have an easier time accepting our situations, but we will create more blessings and more good in our lives.
I never heard this message on Yom HaShoah
Iyov (book of Job) does not have this message. Even with Iyov having a family again at the end of the book, this kids were killed in opening for no known reason to Iyov, to the reader it was just a test.
Even Rebbe Akiva and Nachum ish GamZu did not say this all the time. R Akiva was confident the Temple would be rebuilt but I dont recall him saying Gam Zu LTovah over the destruction. He comforted his colleagues by saying it would surely be rebuilt.
So can you tell us how we discern when to say this and when not? And do you not believe that there must be some Divine plan or these things would not happen?
The fact that a reason exists does not mean it is good.
Although I agree this may a POV issue
The assumption that everything happens for a reason is not universal. ie Rambam on earthquakes. (Reason is nature)
I will say not everyone agrees with Rambam
I agree Nachum Ish GamZu’s outlook is great. But I would assume even he according to halacha would say the bracha dayan emet when a loved one dies and NOT hatov vhametiv.
These are great questions
I think it’s easier to understand the concept “Gam zu leTovah” if we bring into the discussion the dynamics of “Falls and Rises”. Rav Nachman of Breslav elaborated on those in great detail,
very short: The Fall is inevitable and even necessary for the next Rise to happen. We can’t avoid the Falls, however we can decide how low the Fall will be and how well can we convert it into the upward movement. In that sense when you view the fall as good too, you have much better opportunity to use it constructively instead of sinking deeper and deeper. Moving to the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash and the Shoah – both were the result of many national-level falls over hundreds of years. In that sense they were not unavoidable part of “Fall/Rise” dynamic – so even Rabbi Akiva and Nachum ish GamZu didn’t say it was good. From the other side, the deeper the fall, the more the potential for the upswing – we shouldn’t choose the deep fall intentionally, but once we are in the position, at least we can use it well 🙂
More on the practical aspects is here
http://ish-tam.com/blog/100/how-to/spiritual-falls-and-rises-why-do-we-always-decent-before-the-ascent/
Ish Tam
I liked your response and your blog post, Ish Tam. I’m grateful for your thoughtful writing on these subjects. I think you are right that when we find our selves moving “downward” because of some “negative” event, it behooves us to find a way to change the energy and begin moving “upward.” What you write reminds me of the saying about having to “hit rock bottom” before someone can climb out. But we don’t want that to have to happen. I think saying Gam zu l’tovah gives us a way to change the energy and our focus and generate positive energy so we can move forward. Your blog post reminds me a bit also of an analogy of white water rafting! We want to go with the flow…but not down into the depth of the water.
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