In an address the Lubavitcher Rebbe gave in 1963, he expanded on the philosophical and spiritual dynamic behind the principle "tracht gut vet zein gut" - “Think good, and it will be good.”
He began by asking the obvious question: On the basis of what should one believe that in the face of any challenge, “it (the outcome) will be good”? Isn’t it presumptuous to assume that in every given situation we are always deserving of Divine grace, regardless of our state of religious and moral standing?
And what of the basic Jewish belief that there is a Divine order of reward and punishment that governs our world, making salvation dependent on righteous behavior?
The Rebbe’s answer was: When a Jew decides to place his trust in G‑d, believing that his current crisis will be resolved favorably despite facing a bleak reality that suggests otherwise, he has, in effect, risen above his own nature, which in turn elicits, reciprocally, “measure for measure” the suspension of the Divine order, where only the righteous are deserving of salvation. In fact, according to Nachmanides [Bechukotai 26:11]: “When the majority of the Jewish people are complete [in their faith in G‑d], their affairs are not run by the natural order…to the extent that there is no need for a physician or to follow the ways of medicine, as it says, ‘I am the L‑rd your healer….’” Obviously, those times of spiritual perfection are all too rare, and under the current circumstances, we are encouraged to follow the natural order of things.
G‑d, the creator of Man, understands how difficult and even “supernatural” it is for a human being to truly believe—to the degree that he or she no longer experiences fear and anxiety—that an unpromising and even seemingly hopeless situation will have a positive outcome. And, thus, as a result and even reward for the extraordinary act of worship of “tracht gut,” G‑d deems the believer, who is otherwise undeserving of a positive outcome, to be deserving in this instance of an extra measure of Divine generosity.
This was extracted from an essay at Chabad, to see the original plus footnotes, click here
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