626. Anything that the Merciful One Does, He Does for the Best

Sukkot, October 1963

Avid [Aramaic: do] comes from the word Avud [Hebrew: lost], for the Ayin and Aleph are interchangeable. In other words, when a person comes to a state where he is truly lost, when he does not see how he can exist in the world or that he has anything to hold on to, and he has exhausted all the tactics and ideas, and sees that after all the labor and exertions, everything is lost, he must brace himself and say, “Everything that the Merciful one does is for the best.”

In other words, the Creator brought upon him all those states of being lost, and they are for the best. That is, through them he has come to a state where he is at the lowest degree, and by this he will be able to rise up, as it is written, “The Lord is high and the low will see,” for there is no greater lowliness than when one feels completely lost.

This is the meaning of “Everything that the Merciful one does, He does for the best.” Afterward, when he begins to work once more and correct his actions, and makes repentance from love, he says, “This, too, is for the best,” meaning the states when he was lost, and there is no greater transgression than a person coming to a state of being lost.

When he repents from love, he sees that this, too, is for the best, that from the bad itself, the good was done. It follows that there is a difference between “Everything that the Merciful one does” and “this, too, is for the best.”