Q&A: Everything Is for the Good
Everything Is for the Good
Question
Hello Rabbi, in your opinion, what is the meaning of the concept that “everything is for the good”? How are we supposed to relate to bad things that have happened to us?
Answer
The Hazon Ish writes against the naïve view that everything is for the good (as if everything is pleasant and good for me). He explains that everything is as it should be, whether it is pleasant for me or not.
In my personal opinion, this has no real meaning, at least today, because the conduct of the world is not in the hands of the Holy One, blessed be He, but is determined by the laws of nature and human choices (except perhaps for sporadic interventions, and we have no way of knowing whether and where they occur). One could perhaps say that the laws of nature are for the good in a general sense, but that is fairly banal. Clearly, if the Holy One, blessed be He, created these laws, then that is what is right and good in His eyes.
According to this approach, good or bad events that happen to us do not say anything at all, and there is no need to relate to them in any special way. They happen because that is what happened, and that’s it.
Discussion on Answer
First, I wrote sporadic, not few.
Second, I wrote that because a scientific view of the world shows us that its normal course runs according to the laws of nature. But at the same time, there is no way to determine that there is no intervention at all. There may be interventions from time to time that we do not notice.
Oops.
Eye exam, or should I go back to first grade?
Eye exam. If it comes out fine, then go back to first grade. 🙁
Why sporadic?
If you have no way of knowing, why do you assume they are sporadic?
It’s clear to me why one would take the simple view that there are no interventions at all (and that’s what you do), but when you say maybe there are, I don’t understand why you add “sporadic.”