sweetening din at its root, finding the good in everything
From the Baal Shem Tov
An explanation of shas: “a human must always be accustomed to say that all that they do from heaven they do for good”
(Berakhos 60b, but note that the Besht is either misquoting or quoting a non-standard manuscript, since shas literally says “a human must always be accustomed to say that all that the Compassionate One does, he does for good.”)
And like this is the story of Rabbi Akiva
(On the same daf of Berakhos, Rabbi Akiva asked for lodging in a city.They turned him away, and he said “all that the compassionate one does he does for good”. He went to sleep in a field with various belongings, all of which get destroyed in different ways, and he repeats the saying. That night, an army takes the city captive.)
And in shas in Taanis [we learn] that Nakhum said “also this for the good”. And there’s something to understand in the difference between this (R Akiva’s saying) and this (Nakhum’s saying).
And I have written an explanation, to sweeten judgements in their root, by the means that ze will find in the root of the judgement some khesed, then the judgement will be sweetened in this root of khesed and all of it will be made khesed. And therefore Nakhum Ish Gamzu found the khesed in the root of the judgement and it was immediately made khesed. It is not so with an ordinary person in the children of Yisrael, that does not know the root of khesed. In every place, they should be accustomed to say “all that they do from heaven they do for good” from the ordinary, even though they do not know.