Question

Hello Rabbi, I read your articles on the Day of Judgment and the way you touched on your view of God’s providence in the world. First, I think that from the outset, God does not judge or hold court on one particular day. However, I believe that God upholds the decisions of the Jewish people (in the sense of “My children have defeated Me, My children have defeated Me”), and therefore, since the Jewish people throughout the generations accepted Yom Kippur as a Day of Judgment, God in practice turns it into a Day of Judgment. That does not mean that God seals your verdict on that day and that you will have no chance to repent afterward — that I do not believe. But it is a day on which each and every person needs to do the utmost in self-examination and repentance. By way of analogy, it is as though God announced that office hours are now. If a person comes and wants God to hear him afterward, he will have to explain why he did not come during the regular office hours. That is my humble view. As for providence — I do not fully understand your position. Is it that in our generation there is no providence, but in Temple times there was providence? Or perhaps God never acts in the world at all? What do you mean when you say that maybe there is a little providence?