"Throughout the study of Kabbalah, it's important to mistrust the face value of things. Everything has a deeper meaning than what's obvious at first glance. In a very real way, Kabbalah is the process of improving one's ability to see past the superficial into the depths of life itself. The Kabbalistic sages teach that people don't see everything but can improve their sight, both physical and spiritual insight, through the study and practice of Kabbalah.
"One Kabbalist teaches that Kabbalah needs to be 'chewed on.' He makes the analogy that a baby eats liquid food and often resists the transition to solid food because he or she is forced to start chewing, and that's more difficult. But fortunately, babies learn that mastering the art of chewing food brings great benefit. Similarly, chewing on an outrageous statement such as 'Everything is for the best' is tough, but it just may bring some insight and spiritual reward that doesn't show itself at first glance.
"So what does it mean when the Kabbalistic sages say that everything is for the best?
"Understanding how magic tricks work is a great metaphor for addressing this question. Imagine that a magician shows his hat to the audience, and it's empty. After 'proving' to the audience that there's nothing in his hat, he reaches in and pulls out a rabbit. Needless to say, the stage magician didn't actually produce a rabbit out of nothing, but it appears that way to the audience because they don't see everything.
"Perhaps the hat had a secret compartment that fooled the eye into thinking that the hat was entirely empty. Perhaps the rabbit was up the magician's sleeve and he dropped it into the hat as he reached in and grabbed it. Or perhaps what he took out of the hat looked like a rabbit but was actually a cleverly disguised device that could fold up into the hat as if it weren't there and then inflate as the magician revealed it to the audience."
