Free will and gam zu l'tova

yo'ma

Wed, May 29 2019, 7:10 am

A very simplistic thing happened to me yesterday that I shared with some of my children and one said, gam zu l'tova. At the grocery store, when I was at the register and a line behind me, my total came out to about $950. He had to tell me a few times before I understood him that if I buy $1000 worth, since I'm paying in cash, I would get 10% off. Since there was a line behind me and I didn't know what I wanted, I said forget it. Dumb! (the peso to the dollar now is 44 Surprised

)

I at first agreed with it being gam zu l'tova, but at the same time, since we have free will, is what we choose really for the best? For things out of our control, whether it's at someone else's hand or missing the bus, absolutely gam zu l'tova, but when we decide, how is it necessarily? If it was automatic, then really what difference does it make what we do? When I said that to my dd she said, it's complicated Smile

. What do you think?

Pollyanna

Wed, May 29 2019, 7:34 am

yo'ma wrote:

. What do you think?

Great discussion.

I heard that 'הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים'. Though I also keep wondering what that means.

chicco

Wed, May 29 2019, 10:06 am

I think before you answer this you have to define what free will is. The way I understand it, G-d has an agenda, and whatever He wants to happen will, and whatever that is, is good. Hashem orchestrates the events of the world through people. We have the choice to be the shaliach for these things or not. Meaning, if Hashem wants you to get money back, you will, whether you try to get it or not. If you missed your opportunity and you were supposed to get it, it will come another way. Your job is to use your free will to be the shaliach for good things, and to not be the shaliach for the bad. If you choose to be the shaliach, you are. If you choose not to be, Hashem will pass that opportunity on to someone else until someone takes it.

Saying gam zu litova, gives us an appreciation that we know we did the best we could and ultimately it will work out because Hashem is running everything.

amother

Orchid

Wed, May 29 2019, 10:23 am

I can think of many examples in my life of where I thought *I* was doing everything right, hishtadlus, research, acting responsibly, but in the end the result was really in the hands of Hashem--whether it was a job offer, house/apartment, financial opportunity. To be more precise, last year we were presented with an opportunity to move, everything leading up to the move was falling into place, it was like "Ok Hashem, we get the message, this is what YOU want for us." I did so much research prior to our move to avoid problems, but when day came, the move went anything but smoothly, it was a disaster, then the house had a major problem--an effort to save money cost us almost twice what we should've paid. Do we understand any of it? no. But rewinding a year earlier we were simultaneously presented with a "choice" of two seemingly "identical" options for a house rental, we REALLY wanted one, but only one really materialized. At first we thought we "lucked" out with a good rental situation, but then our landlord made a change to our rental "agreement" which is what "forced" us to move--long story. Obviously Hashem led us to the house that would end up changing our course. Do we understand it? No, but its all part of the master plan. How about the time I went out of my way for an interview, the job was a clear mismatch, but 3 years later the place calls me because they found my resume in the pile? How about the time I was fired from a job while pregnant over a whole kerfuffle with them not wanting to let me take time off to go for my 20 week sonogram (they were crazy) and then I got diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, and had to go for nutritional counseling "during the day" every 2-3 weeks for the rest of my pregnancy. How about the time that we were trying to get pregnant so we could continue to qualify for Medicaid, but things weren't happening and we were only 3K over the limit, but we got kicked off, which forced my husband to get a new job, with a company and then almost 2 years later his employer "needed" him so much that when we moved made an arrangement with him that was unheard of in his company. We have to make the best decisions based on the information we are presented with, but only Hashem knows the full-deck and which cards are coming up in the pile. Only in hindsight do we begin to understand how things were really for our "good" even if it was a bitter pill to swallow.