GEN189 It is the long rather than the short view of history that reveals the workings of God. Through suffering and judgment man moves toward the Messianic goal of triumphant righteousness and perfect felicity. The rabbis, as we’ve indicated above, found further comfort in the belief that the injustices of this life will be righted in the next. The doctrine of otherworldly compensation in a heaven and hell is largely derived from the human craving for a final balance. Accordingly Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish interpreted the Divine approbation of creation in the words “Behold, it is very good” [this verse] as applying to this world, and the additional conjunction “and” which precedes these words (“and behold, it is very good”) as referring to the hereafter. God beheld both worlds at one glance. The present order is completed by the next. In the words of Robert Browning: “Here, a broken arc, there a perfect whole.” R. Meir interpreted the same text, “And behold, it is very good” as applying to death. Other masters applied it to the evil inclination, to suffering, to Gehenna and to retribution. Genesis Rabbah 9:5-13 Seemingly evil, they all serve useful purposes in the Divine order. “No evil comes from above.”  Genesis Rabbah 51:3; Tanhuma, Buber, Vayera 18. Nahum of Gimzo’s moto, “This too is for the best” – gam zu letobah, Taanit 21a expresses the optimistic note in Judaism. R. Akiba teaches similarly, “Whatever God does is for the best.” Berachot 60b  It forms part of the Divine law of compensation. “There is no death without sin, and no suffering without iniquity.” Shabbat 55a  While coming as punishments, both have atoning power. The pious prized suffering because it purges men of sin.  The afflictions of the righteous are but blessings in disguise. They are the chastisements of love, visiting man in this life that he may be purified of the effects of evil and prepared for the bliss of the hereafter. Kiddushin 40a, b; also Berachot 5b; Sifre, Deuteronomy 307. COHON 56-7