Judaism :: Seeing the Bigger Picture

The Talmud in Tannis 21a acquaints us with a man of
tremendous faith Nachum Eish Gamzu. It is related of Nachum of
Gamzu that he was blind in both eyes, his hands and legs were
amputated, his whole body was covered with boils and he was
lying in a dilapidated house on a bed, the feet of which were
standing in bowls of water in order to prevent the ants from
crawling on to him. Why was he called Nachum of Gamzu? Whatever
befell him he would declare, "This also is for the best"
(gamzu letova).

We need to understand the saying, "This also is for the best".
What else is there? Why "also"?

According to the the Baal Haturim the Torah portion of Toldos
runs straight into this weeks Torah portion of Vayetzei. The
explanation given is that this portion is "closed" because Jacob
left in secret and fled under the cloak of disguise when running
away from his brother Eisav.

Rav Chaim Shmulevitz z'al asks: We know that the
separations between the Torah portions were given to Moshe our
teacher in order to give a break to think and reflect. So even
if Jacob left in secret, what reason could there be why we were
not given time to think about this section?

The Midrush in Bereishit Rabbah 91:10 makes the following
statement about Jacob when he complained about having to send
his son Benjamin to Egypt.

The Holy One, Blessed is He, said "I am busy crowning your son
Yosef king and you complain that I am treating you badly?

G-d criticized Jacob for not looking at the bigger picture and
focusing too much on the details. When one only focuses on a
particular event, they loose sight of the greater story.

This is the reason why the Torah did not want to give us a break
to think about Jacob running away. Jewish history can only be
understood as a whole and Jacob's difficult situation with Eisav
was only the beginning of the greater story.

Now we can also understand the saying "this also is for the
best". The term "also" connects each event to the bigger
picture. By not looking at each situation as separate, one is
able to see G-d's master plan and to trust in his true judgments
and kindness even during the most difficult circumstances. As it
says in Tehillim 19:10. The fear of the Lord is pure, existing
forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, altogether just.

About the Author:

Rabbi Eliyahu Mitterhoff is the director of the Global Yeshiva Torah & Judaism Research Community. He envisions the Global Yeshiva as a great and unprecedented historic opportunity to share, learn, teach and spread Torah on a global level.