“Who is it who said and it occurred, if the Lord did not command it?” (Lamentations 3:37).“Who is it who said and it occurred, if the Lord did not command it?” – who did command? Haman commanded, but the Holy One blessed be He did not command. Haman commanded “to destroy, to kill, and to eliminate” (Esther 3:13). But the Holy One blessed be He did not command it, but rather, “the plot [that he devised]…return [upon his head]” (Esther 9:25).“Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that evil and good emerge?” (Lamentations 3:38).“Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that evil and good emerge?” – Rabbi Elazar said: From the moment that the Holy One blessed be He said: “See, I have placed before you today: life and good, and death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15), no good has emerged for a performer of evil nor evil for a performer of good, but rather good for a performer of good and evil for a performer of evil, just as it says: “The Lord will reward the performer of evil in accordance with his wickedness” (II Samuel 3:39).“Of what shall a living man complain, each man for his sins?” (Lamentations 3:39).“Of what shall a living man complain?” – it is sufficient for him that he is alive. Rabbi Levi said: The Holy One blessed be He said: Your life is in My hands, yet you complain? Rabbi Huna said: Let him stand like a mighty one, confess his sins, and not complain. Rabbi Berekhya said: Of what shall he complain about the One who gives life to the worlds? If he seeks to complain, it should be each man for his sins. Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] says: Descendants of bearers of grievance; Adam, the first man, after all the good that I bestowed upon him, he expresses a grievance before Me and says: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, [she gave me from the tree, and I ate]” (Genesis 3:12). Jacob, too, did so. I am engaged in crowning his son king in Egypt, and he expresses a grievance before Me: “[Why do you say, Jacob…] my way is hidden from the Lord” (Isaiah 40:27). His children, too, I am engaged in providing them with easily digestible bread so that no one among them will be afflicted with indigestion or diarrhea, and they express a grievance before Me: “Our soul loathes this insubstantial bread” (Numbers 21:5). Zion, too, is similar: “Zion said: The Lord has forsaken Me and the Lord has forgotten Me” (Isaiah 49:14).