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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 his eyes, his two hands and legs were amputated and 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? because 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 crowing 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 site 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. Have a Good Shabbos! Based on the writings of Rav Chaim Shmulevitz z’al If not now, when? |
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| <lori>
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Actually, I have other comments to make on this commentary as well. But, I have to go for a little while right now. Stay tuned ...
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| <lori>
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I have to wonder about the practical psychological health of this attitude. It could reflect a deep bitachon which alludes nearly the entire human race  or it could reflect an attitude of deep apathy and hopelessness. |
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| <lori>
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eludes, I mean
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| <lori>
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I've decided not to post my commentary. It's way too long to type out again and I haven't figure out how to copy and paste in the boxes here yet.
Can we copy and paste somehow into these text boxes? |
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Shalom Aleijem:
It is fantastic traveling throught Torah light and the wisdom awaken on all jewish sages. I feel that "Gamzu Le Tova " - This also is for the best Could be very well explained by " Minei Kolej Mibeji Veenay mi dima Ki lesh Sajar Lifhulatej. Ve Shabu Meeret´s Ho ieb - Hired your voice from crying and your eyes from tears, because there is payment for your doings, be exalted from strange lands "- This taken from a commentary article of Rab. Moshe M. Hoffer web page WWW.Tora.org.arg . Studying the Teaching of The Lubavitcher Rebbe. I understand that there is a spiritual light that it can be hold in two stages , one " Haalaah- Elevation" and two " hamshachah- drawing down". In order for the physical world to be in the same stage of purpose with spiritual world and come to Divinity of G-d there must take place " Aliyat Haolamot- Elevation of the world". Now I feel that Gamzu LeTova opens up an opportunity to accomplish what explains Rabi Schneir Zalman of Liadi ( Of Blessed Memory) the low dimension is our physical world but nothing is lower that can diminished " The Light of G-d" . Wonderful Thanks >You Lej Leshalom |
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This concept of gamzu letova has given me great consolation in tough times, and I have had and am having a lot of these in my life.
Gamzu letova is a radical acceptance of G-d's will and an act of surrender to what must be. We can easily rail against what is happening to us instead of accepting the inevitable and getting on with what we must do. It is like the classic Serenity prayer of AA, an accepting of what we have to, but, however, it also includes, implicitly, the wisdom to discern when we can act and the expectation that we should, if this seems what we should do in a Torah goverened life. I will share a practical example. Some time back, when I was in the garden, my oldest teenage daughter came running out to me calling " Mummy, the kitchen is on fire !" I went to the kitchen immediately and it was indeed on fire. Somebody had left a pot of oil on a hotplate on high. Not adopting gamzu letova means I would have just been passive and done nothing. I may not even have rung the fire service (which I didn't anyway).There are thought processes going on in determining what we do and these are implicitly expected to be factored in when we apply gamzu letova. I myself decided to fight the fire and, along with the assistance of my daughter whom I instructed to do certain things, and the fire was overcome. But I accepted that the fire was there. To not take an attitude of gamzu letova is in effect a psychological mechanism of denial. It is a rebellious refusal to surrender to G-d andto act as we should. To become passive regardless of what we could do is not gamzu letova even if people adopting this action (even inaction is action) say"Gamzu letova !" What people say can be just smoke and mirrors.
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Nachum of Gamzu was thinking, "I may not see the big picture right now, but I have faith in G-d that this, along with all His other plans, is for the best." I was trying to picture myself as Nachum, in that condition, saying to myself the same things. Yesterday, I'm not sure I could have. Today, because of reading this story, perhaps I could. Because Nachum was right. His suffering WAS part of G-d's bigger picture: to have thousands and thousands of people read about his suffering and his faith in G-d's bigger plan, and for those thousands to be inspired to have similar faith.
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Yes, this is how I see it basically. We just don't know, because we are not G-d, how the bigger picture is andhow it is evolving (because it is not a static picture).
The predominant way people , from my observation, tend to view their moment to moment experience, is as if they are G-d. They think they own it all and can or should determine the outcomes. But really they are just as and where they are because of G-d and to think otherwise is to make the classic error of overreaching themselves. This overeaching has been been repeatedly pointed out over millennia, and Torah deals repeatedly with this, but we humans have trouble learning the lesson. This is not to say that they are not able and expected to do things. We just don't do them from a godlike mindset. As Paulette said of Nachum, our behaviour can influence others. And there are other ways we can act too and play our part in the bigger scheme of things. Some of these ways and the part they play may not be immediately obvious but still quite real. Such as how Nachum was being, in himself, there on his bed and just looking like a non contributing person. Reality is much more than we realise. |
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