Wednesday, August 30, 2006
It's All Good.

Sometimes, a Jew will bless another with the blessing of "Only revealed good."

We are supposed to believe that "nothing evil comes from heaven," - that things that seem the darkest are suffused with the greatest light. Often, we cannot see this with our simple, earthly eyes.

In today's portion of Tanya, the Alter Rebbe discusses this. Here is an excerpt, elucidated by Rabbi Yosef Wineberg:

The life-force of all things, even those that we perceive as evil, as found within its source is truly good. In fact, it is such a lofty manner of good that it remains faithful to its source, and as such is not apprehensible to man as good. In this it differs from the other form of good that is able to descend to so low a level that even mortals can perceive its goodness. This higher form of goodness, because it retains its status at the outset of its revelation, is clothed in this world in a garb of pain and evil, inasmuch as its goodness has yet to be revealed to man…In this spirit, the Alter Rebbe explains the conduct of Nachum Ish Gamzu, whose response to all occurrences was the remark, Gam zu letovah — “This, too, is for the good.” This remark not only meant that an event that seemed to be evil would eventually evolve into good, but that the event itself, by virtue of its source, was good in its present form as well; its inherent goodness would be revealed at some later date.

This is a real toughie. There's so much darkness in the world, yet we must strive to see it as light. Strive to understand that the One who is constantly creating is only creating good.

p.s. Ernesto blew over. Just a little wind and rain, Baruch Hashem. Now that's some revealed goodness!


1 Comments:

  • At 10:56 PM, Blogger Stephanie said…

    i don't buy that. The creator gave us free will and should not take responsibility for what was given us...simply free will. Evil is simply evil.

     

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