Q&A: Whoever Said Everything Will Be Good?

 

Q. I notice that in many Torah lectures I hear, the rabbi often gives words of encouragement and says "Yihyeh tov [Everything will be good]! G-d wants what's best for us!" My question is: How can we be sure? After all, I know people 50 years old who never got married, for instance; who can promise that that won't happen to me? I know other people who have had other problems that they never recovered from; who can promise that I won't suffer the same?

A. You're right; no one can promise us anything. Yet, still, King David writes us in Tehillim (Psalms 145): "G-d is good to all, and His compassion is on all His works." And we say in the Grace After Meals, "For He is G-d Who nourishes and provides for all and is good to all." We are "believers, sons of believers" that HaShem wishes to shower goodness upon the world in general, and upon the Jewish Nation in particular.

It's true that the goodness is not always seen to the naked eye, and is hidden to various extents. For instance, sometimes it comes later than we wished, or in a different manner that we expected. If we insist on receiving the Divine goodness only in the way we believe it should come - we are liable to be disappointed.

But if we believe that truly, "everything is for the best" - i.e., everything that happens truly leads us to our personal goodness, precisely in the manner that G-d finds it best to bring it - then we will be able to be much happier and more serene.

At the same time, we can pray to G-d that He bring us "revealed good," that is, goodness that we can recognize even as it's happening and not only later. This is of course just the nutshell of the explanation, and there is much more to expound and understand.

Answered by Rabbi Shmuel Minkov, Yeshivat Bet El
Translated by Hillel Fendel