Is general supervision possible without private supervision?
Hello Rabbi Michi,
I am unable to accept and understand that there is no general supervision over the people of Israel.
For example, thousands of Jewish communities that survived in completely different parts of the world independently (while no “Babylonian” or “Roman” communities survived). For example, Operation Moked in the Six Days, etc., etc., etc.
So, for me, the likelihood that the people of Israel will survive is not as slim as a lottery result of 5,16,3,41,26, but rather it seems more like 1,2,3,4,5 to me, and that this happens over a million consecutive draws.
I mean, since this is how I see things, I have to be really crazy to conclude that there is no God behind this.
My question to the Rabbi is this:
In his book, the Rabbi explains that general providence is not possible, among other things, because the whole is composed of a number of details, and if there is no private providence, then there cannot be general providence that does not come through private providence (about the details :)).
I hope I understood correctly.
I argue this way: If I have concluded with my mind that there is general providence, and the deduction requires that there is also private providence, according to the extensive explanation I gave above (which I accept), even if I do not understand or see private providence in practice.
If so, according to the Rabbi’s opinion, is it still possible to conclude that there is general providence without private providence?
Best regards, Ehud.
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I will clarify the question because I did not quite understand how the answer answers my question.
Suppose I came to an unequivocal conclusion, regarding the survival of the Jewish people, that it was a general supernatural providence (and not a product of our culture and values and adherence to the Torah), is it then possible to conclude that there is a private providence (because the general is a derivative of the particulars) or can we adhere to the idea that there is a “supernatural hand’ for all of Israel, but without private providence?
You are taking my words out of context. I argued that there is no private providence arising from a view of the world. I argued that there is no general providence based on several considerations, among which is that general providence is the sum of private providences.
Hence, even if you have come to the conclusion that there is general providence, it does not necessarily mean that there is also private. On the contrary, the arguments against private providence still stand.
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