I don’t know what to say to the Rabbi about this slimming-down. After examining and studying the Rabbi’s words, I came to the conclusion that the Rabbi is right about providence (involvement), but unfortunately, despite trying to continue observing commandments out of commitment to the Holy One, blessed be He, I’ve lost it. The recipe doesn’t work for me. I observe commandments (half-heartedly) out of some hidden fear of stopping (they succeeded with me in the cheder..). It’s hard for me and it makes me sad. But as the poet said: life is no picnic.

The question is whether the success in cheder doesn’t mean that you aren’t interpreting yourself correctly. Maybe you really do understand that this is the proper and right way to act, and that’s why you feel obligated (and it’s not just fear and inertia). The fact that you don’t understand only means that the Holy One’s purposes are hidden from you (and from me too). The obligation to obey Him, and the assumption that this is the right way to conduct oneself in the world, are enough reason to obey even if He doesn’t give you feedback about it in this world. After all, the Sages already said that there is no reward for a commandment in this world. Do you get feedback from the world for moral behavior? Why don’t you consider stopping that? Because it’s the right thing to do. So too with Jewish law.

Ron,
It really is interesting—why should it make a difference to your observance of the commandments whether the Holy One, blessed be He, intervenes in nature and breaks it or not?
For me, the concern that perhaps the Holy One is indifferent to the observance of commandments was psychologically troubling (loneliness), but it’s not clear to me what, for you, is stirred up by His lack of involvement in this world.

Rabbi… that’s an interesting point—that maybe it isn’t fear and/or inertia, but rather some hidden sense of obligation, that in any case and under any circumstance one must keep Torah and commandments.

Shai,
The lack of involvement of the Holy One, blessed be He, is contradicted by the words of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Sages. (There’s no point arguing about it—this is obvious fact to any learned person.) And in my humble opinion there was no halakhic sage among the Jewish people until Rabbi Michael came along and pointed out that with our own eyes we see there is no involvement.
And if so, the Torah does not stand the test of reality. That is what His lack of involvement stirs up in me.

And since you mentioned loneliness before God,
I’ll ask about social loneliness… My whole religious environment believes that the Holy One, blessed be He, has the power to intervene in the world if He only wants to, and that He does want to from time to time (only the dosage is disputed), and yet that just isn’t true! Is it easy to be the lone dissenting opinion at home, in the family, in the circle of friends, in kollel??
Does the Rabbi have any advice for this difficulty?

There were several sages who held this view, Maimonides among them.

Are you claiming that He can’t intervene even if He wants to? That’s absurd. He created the world, so He can’t intervene in its laws? What I argue is that He doesn’t want to (that this is His policy), not that He can’t.
As for your being in the minority, that’s partly a matter of temperament but also of decision. Personally, I have no problem at all being in the minority. On the contrary—maybe I’m the one who has a problem holding a consensus opinion.

Ron,
Leave aside what Rabbi Michi thinks about it. The question is what you yourself ultimately decide. Even if you reach the conclusion that God indeed does not intervene for us in the world, that does not entail the loss of all religious faith, but only a small part of it. Saadia Gaon, for example, opposed belief in reincarnation, and Maimonides opposed the doctrine of Kabbalah. Does that mean one must reject the obligation to obey the commandments?
Personally, I remain in doubt about the Holy One’s involvement in the world, and I don’t know how to decide, so I remain in doubt—and I don’t feel that this contradicts my obligation to observe His commandments.

And regarding social loneliness: personally, I take pride in it. People appreciate people who think independently and stand by their views.

Rabbi,
I was misunderstood. I wrote what my surroundings claim when the facts are thrown in their faces. Their claim is that of course He can intervene if He only wants to, and that He does want to from time to time. (I added in parentheses that the dosage remains disputed among them.) And for some reason, I just don’t see it.
I certainly understand that this is the Creator’s policy!

What is extremely hard for me is the understanding that a significant part of my surroundings think that in their Judaism there is no place for me.

Huge congratulations on publishing the trilogy!

Shai,
It’s not just a small part of my religious faith. It contradicts the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Sages. A fundamental contradiction, resolved only with difficulty using a mathematical maneuver.

But I really think this is not the day for questions and difficulties, it is

“a festive day for the rabbis.”

Ron, Shai,
If we’re talking about loneliness, go to Master J.B.
He knows the way.

Methuselah,
An existential experience in observing commandments shows that a person is authentic in what he does, that the action is part of him. That’s no small thing.

I wasn’t belittling it—quite the opposite.
Rabbi Soloveitchik (J.B.)
wrote a beautiful book about this, highly recommended for anyone serving God in the postmodern era.
It’s called “The Lonely Man of Faith.”
The book describes his experience of loneliness as a religious person and deals with the questions raised here in the thread.

After all, the Flood was delayed as long as Methuselah was alive. Which is to say: even a lonely man of faith sustains the world (assuming, of course, that the Holy One, blessed be He, intervenes…

Best regards, S.Z.

With God’s help, 19 Kislev 5780

In Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s book ‘The Lonely Man of Faith’ there is included the essay ‘The Voice of My Beloved Knocks,’ in which he lays out the ‘six knocks of the Beloved’ that were revealed in the return of sovereignty to the Jewish people and the beginning of its return to Zion.

Fair enough—you can understand the elders of Judah in the period of destruction, who thought there would be no revival and said, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land’ (Ezekiel 8:12). But to come after our own eyes have seen how the Jewish people survived in wondrous fashion the seventy wolves who sought to destroy it, and before our eyes the prophet’s vision is being fulfilled: ‘But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are soon to come’—and still to claim, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land’?

Best regards, S.Z.

That’s minimal intervention,
just so the Jewish people won’t be wiped out.