Parshas Korach
By Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
Yes, it was undoubtedly a “teachable moment†for the kids (and for me, too)!
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Toronto Zoo recently converted itself (for the summer, at least) into a “drive-thru†safari. The kids thought it was a cool idea, so we ordered tickets online (surprisingly it wasn’t that expensive, even with the “roaming†charges), packed into the mini-van, and away we went!
Unfortunately, things went south shortly after we got there. We knew it was a bad sign when the first animal we encountered was a raccoon near the parking lot. We all had a good laugh! Imagine that! A raccoon at the zoo!
Well let me tell you something … we don’t need to drive across Toronto just to see raccoons! We already got plenty of them on our block and in our garbage bins!
Then there was major, bumper-to-bumper traffic just to get into the zoo itself. I couldn’t believe it! I have traffic like that right next to where I live – so I don’t need traffic at the zoo, too – thank you very much!
The zoo people told us that the entire safari tour would take around 45 minutes. Which was fine with us. Problem is that there were no animals!
Get this! For the first 25 minutes of the safari, the only “animal†we saw was a tiny bug on our windshield! I’m not kidding!
And in the last 20 minutes we only saw one drugged-up rhino, a couple of flamingos, and some short-legged horses. Oh, and a monkey, too! (I think the Siberian Tiger was on vacation in Miami.)
Funny thing is that although there were hardly any animals to be found throughout the safari tour, the Zoo made sure that there were workers selling Nescafe ice cream bars at kiosks near practically every turn along the route! Animals be damned! Show the kids what they really want to see – grossly unhealthy and obesity-causing ice cream!
Needless to say, the kids weren’t so happy with the “no animal†safari tour, and I felt that in the van on the way home from the zoo was the right time and place for what i like to call a ‘teachable Torah momentâ€, i.e. an opportune time to share with the kids some Torah wisdom, in this case, about what to do when things go south, or at least not exactly the way we wanted them to go.
At such times, a Jew follows Nachum of Gam Zu’s lead and declares the following three words: Gam Zu L’Tovah, “This too is for the good†- meaning that even though things aren’t working out, we believe that G-d runs the world, and that everything that happens to us is for our own good (we just haven’t yet figured out how it’s going to work out for the good - and maybe never will).
One of the great personalities in our history who exemplified this “concept†of Gam Zu L’Tovah to the highest level was none other than Nachum of Gam Zu himself, of course.
The Talmud in Ta’anis 21a tells us a little bit about the life of this great sage:
Why was he called Nacḥum of Gam Zu? Because whatever happened to him he would say, Gam Zu L’Tovah, “This too is for the goodâ€. Once, the Jews wished to send a gift to the Roman Emperor. They said: Who should go and present this gift? Let Nacḥum of Gam Zu go, as he is accustomed to miracles. They sent along with him a chest full of precious gems and pearls, and he went and spent the night in a certain inn. During the night, these residents of the inn arose and took all of the precious jewels and pearls from the chest and replaced them with earth. When Nachum arrived at the palace they opened up the chest and found that it was full of earth. The Emperor was furious and wanted to kill the Jews for mocking him. Nachum merely said, Gam Zu L’Tovah, “This too is for the goodâ€.
The Prophet Elijah then appeared in the guise of a Roman senator and remarked, “Perhaps this is some of the earth of their father Abraham, for when he threw earth [against the armies of the four kings – see Midrash Tanchuma on Genesis 14], it turned into swords, and when he threw straw it turned into arrows …†Now there was one nation the Emperor previously had been unable to subdue, but when they tried some of this earth against it they were able to conquer it. They took Nachum to the imperial treasury and filled his chest with precious gems and pearls and sent him on his way with great honor.
On his return trip Nachum spent the night in the same inn, and they asked him, “What gift did you bring to the Emperor that they showed you such honor?†He replied, “That which I took from here I brought there.†The innkeepers thereupon tore down the inn and took the earth to the Emperor and said to him, “The earth that was brought to you belonged to us.†They tested it, and when they found that it did not work, they put the innkeepers to death.
Orchos Tzaddikim, a 15th century book on Jewish ethics, writes in Sha’ar HaSimchah (“The Gate of Joyâ€) the following about dealing with troubles and pain:
And thus if a man has any kind of troubles he must rejoice even so. And thus said the Sages: "Beloved are troubles" (Berachos 5b). And the Sages said also: "He who rejoices in his pain brings salvation to the world" (Ta'anis 8a). And a man should accustom his mouth to say: Gam Zu L’Tovah, "This too is for the good" (Ta'anis 21a), or "All that the merciful God has done He has done for good" (Berachos 60b). For there are many apparent evils whose end is good, and thus did our Rabbis teach and interpret this portion of Scripture, "… I thank you, O L-ord, for You were angry with me, and now Your wrath has subsided and You have comforted me" (Isaiah. 12:1). They explained it with a parable of two men who walked, intending to board a boat. One of them had a thorn stuck into his foot so that he could not board the boat and when his companion boarded the boat the man bruised by the thorn began to curse his "evil fortune". After a time he heard that the boat had sunk and all the people in it had died. Then did he begin to praise the Creator, may He be Blessed, for he realized that the incident with the thorn had saved his life (Niddah 31a).Therefore, should a man rejoice with troubles and with other injuries that may befall him, for he does not know what good will be derived from them in the future. And thus did Nachum of Gam Zu conduct himself.
So I told the kids in the minivan that even though the safari didn’t work out as planned, and was kind of a waste of time, it is precisely in situations like this that we can practice doing exactly what Nachum of Gam Zu would have done in such a case, and say Gam Zu L’Tovah, “This too is for the goodâ€
Or maybe we should have said, Gam ZOO L’Tovah!
http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=620