עברית
Faith
There Is a Concept That Everything Can Be Turned for Good
Question
The rabbi is surely familiar with the saying: There is a concept that everything can be turned for good. I am not 100% sure who said it, so I will not give credit. I assume that the rabbi agrees with the saying; if not, I hope the rabbi will correct me. I have two questions regarding this concept: 1. Is it not true that everything Hashem does is for the good? If so, what can be turned for good if everything is already good? 2. After all, even good is not always 'pleasant.' A person can experience suffering to rectify their sins either in this reincarnation or in the next. If that is the case, what exactly is "comforting" (from the word nechama) in this statement? If good is also what appears to us as bad, then we should simply say everything is good. I hope the rabbi understands me. Thank you very much!
Answer
Greetings and blessings
There is no saying in our sages that everything can be turned for good.
There are two sayings from the sages: a. This too is for good. b. Everything that Hashem does is for the good.
In the commentaries, one can find the proverb that bad has been turned to good, meaning that something which we perceive with our physical eyes as seemingly bad ultimately turns out to be good in our eyes. However, this does not mean that it was indeed bad; rather, it appeared to our eyes as something undesirable, but in the end, it became clear to us that it was good.
With blessings,
Binyamin Shmueli
