Introduction - Part 12: Always Happy

In the same manner that a mother occasionally does things against her child’s will because it is really for the good of the child, so too, G‑d sometimes does things to a person that seem to him as not good and therefore against his will but are ultimately in his best interests.

Against his nature. Even if a person’s current life experiences make it difficult for him to be naturally happy and it takes courage to see things in a good light, the person who has bitachon remains happy (Nedar Bakodesh).

Only do to him that which is good for him. The Midrash states that “nothing bad descends from heaven” (Bereishit Rabbah 51:3).

The Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, writes the following reflection: When a person contemplates in depth and (then) pictures in his mind how he comes into being, as something from nothing, at every single moment—he is affected at every moment of his existence by the Divine energy that animates him, which is G‑d’s attribute of chochmah, the source of life, good, and delight—how can he entertain a thought that he is suffering?

Such a thought is only possible, the Alter Rebbe continues, because the good is not comprehensible. He imagines that he is suffering. In truth, however, “no evil descends from Above,” and everything is good. In this case it is not comprehended (as such) because of its immense and abundant goodness, at a level that is inconceivable to man.

This is the essence of faith, for which man was created—to believe that “there is no place void of G‑d,” and “in the light of the King’s countenance there is life.”

Accordingly, Strength and gladness are in His place, because He is only good all the time. Therefore, first of all, man ought to be happy and joyous at every time and hour— despite the inevitable changes in life —and truly live by this faith in G‑d, Who animates him and acts kindly toward him at every moment (Tanya, Iggeret Hakodesh, Epistle 11; Lessons in Tanya).

Against the will of the child. The infant may often cry in discomfort when being diapered and swaddled by his mother, but this is no doubt in the infant’s best interests, which is why the mother continues.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe writes: “Imagine a person (unfamiliar with the advances in medical science) entering a hospital operating room and observing a person lying on the operating table. Around this patient are people holding knives and cutting him, all while the person is groaning with pain. Not understanding the surgical procedure, the observer will leave the room in an uproar, shouting that a human being has been taken and is being cut, and that he is groaning in pain and unable to free himself from his tormentors.

“However, when this observer is given to understand that the operation is critical for the patient, so that the latter may live many more decades, and for which reason serious consideration is not being given to the patient’s temporary discomfort, the observer will not only agree that they—the ‘cutters’—are not tormentors and murderers, but he will understand that the very opposite is true: They are doing the greatest possible favor to the individual who is under the knife.

“We understand from this that a person may experience true pain. That person, however, is also aware of the Divine Hand of individual Providence…” (Igrot Kodesh of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, vol. 13, p. 170).

In another letter, the Lubavitcher Rebbe writes: “Quite often a person does not truly know what is in his best interests. And even when an individual concludes that he knows with one-hundred-percent certainty that the thing is good for him, he still cannot possibly know the reasons why he has not been currently granted these matters.

To bring an example from the business world: A good and experienced businessperson will not sell his merchandise at an inopportune time—even when he can realize a profit, but reckons that by selling his merchandise at a later date he can realize a far greater profit.

The same is so with G‑d’s goodness. If it is delayed, it is in all probability because at a later time G‑d’s blessing will be in a much greater manner” (ibid., p. 249).

Although King David had many troubles, he remained calm, because he considered himself like a suckling on his mother—he believed that everything G‑d was doing to him was for his best.