“Rabbi Akiva taught: A person should always say: “Everything that G-d does, He does for the good.” Rabbi Akiva was once traveling, when he arrived in a certain town. He asked for lodgings and was refused. Said he: “Everything that G-d does, He does for the good,” and went to spend the night in a field.
He had with him a rooster, a donkey and a lamp. A wind came and extinguished the lamp, a cat came and ate the rooster, a lion came and ate the donkey. He said, “Everything that G-d does, He does for good.” That night, an army came and took the entire town captive. Rabbi Akiva said to his disciples: “Did I not tell you that everything that G-d does, He does for good?” If the lamp had been lit, the army would have seen me; if the donkey would have brayed or the rooster would have crowed, the army would have come and captured me.
In other words, Rabbi Akiva recognized that although there was a “bad” event, that event would lead to a “good” event that would cause a re-evaluation of the previous event. Often, it is only in retrospect that the meaning of an event becomes clear.[1]
Sometimes, within our own lives, we can see how a particular event which seemed terrible ends up causing a wonderful outcome. Sometimes we don’t. But a person who has internalized Rabbi Akiva’s statement lives with a Bitachon that the “negative” events that we have experienced in the past will eventually lead to wonderful future events.
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