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. --The Global Yeshiva