Q&A: Everything the Merciful One does—is it for the good?
Everything the Merciful One does—is it for the good?
Question
Hello Rabbi!
Regarding the principle, “Everything the Merciful One does, He does for the good” — is this a rule about everything that happens in reality, or is it limited to a certain domain of reality? I’ll give an example. If a person’s son was killed in a car accident, God forbid, can this statement be applied?
In addition, if everything the Merciful One does is for the good, then seemingly we have nothing to complain about, because everything is for the best.
Let me phrase my question differently: at what point in reality may I fight against an injustice, and when does the point begin where I say that it is for the good and therefore stop fighting it?
Answer
In my opinion, the Holy One, blessed be He, is not involved in the world today (except perhaps in sporadic and very rare cases), so the question does not arise. What was in the past? I do not know. Of course, one can still say that everything the Holy One, blessed be He, does is for the good—but He does nothing. In logical terminology, one could say that this is vacuously true (like the statement: all fairies have wings, which is also vacuously true because there are no fairies. The claim is that there is no fairy without wings, and if there were fairies they would have wings).
And on the practical level, everything depends on our own efforts, and we must fight against injustices. I should note that everyone would agree with that, of course, except that some would base it on the absurd and bizarre thesis of “human effort,” about which I have already written here several times in the past. See, for example, here, here, here and here (on “human effort,” see especially the third source).
The belief should be that everything is for the good. And someone who believes that does not complain, but is content with his lot.
God made you in order to fight against injustices. Fighting against them and complaining are different things.
That is, the injustices and the struggle against them are all for the good.