Q:
Should we say that all is good even though we don’t feel it?
A:
And the answer is yes! Because vehalachta bedrachav – you have to walk in the ways of Hashem, and it says in the Torah: וירא אלוקים את כל אשר עשה – Hashem saw all that he had made, והנה טוב מאד – and behold the whole thing is very good (Bereishis 1:31). Hashem said this is a very good world! And so, instead of walking around and grouching, “It’s too hot. It’s so humid,” or “It’s too cold – it’s nasty; it’s raining;” instead of that, we should always speak well of Hashem’s world.
It’s hot? Wonderful! The apples are getting red on the trees. The pears are becoming sweet on the trees. If it wasn’t hot, they wouldn’t become sweet. It’s cold? That’s also wonderful! The earth now is taking a rest from producing and while it’s taking a rest it’s recuperating all the minerals it lost, all the materials it lost during the summertime. Without the winter, there can’t be a summer. If it was summer all year, the earth would keep on producing and it would become arid and infertile. That’s why the earth takes vacation in the wintertime. Cold is wonderful. Cold forces the earth to stop producing.
Rain is wonderful! Without rain, we’re nothing. When it rains, we’re coming down from the sky. You came down in the rain once upon a time! We’re almost 80% rain. We came down from the sky once. And people are grouching and complaining about the rain. Here we were coming down from the clouds and they were complaining against us. That’s our chance to come to this world! That’s rain! And therefore when rain comes down, all the boys of the yeshivos are coming down and their future brides, the kallos from Bais Yaakov, are coming down. They’re all coming down together from the sky. So rain is wonderful.
So Hashem says it’s a very good world, and He wants us to keep on saying that all the time. הודו להשם כי טוב – Give praises to Hashem that He gave a very good world; and if you keep on saying it, after a while, after some time, you’ll begin to feel it.
TAPE # 799 (September 1990)
