Q&A: Providence
Providence
Question
From the Rabbi’s remarks in several places, it seems that there is no reason to assume divine intervention in the world nowadays. (And throughout the generations there were commentators who denied every miracle. Maimonides believed only in the miracles recorded in Scripture; more radical commentators such as Gersonides and Abarbanel tried to explain even the splitting of the Sea and the Ten Plagues in natural terms.)
This is indeed a very plausible assumption on the factual level.
However, even Maimonides, who wrote that individual providence applies only to great righteous people, is the one who ruled (following the Talmud) that one fasts over a calamity that comes upon the community. He even calls cruel someone who does not repent and awaken in response to difficult things that happen.
How can this be reconciled with his view of providence? Is it not possible that there is a plague that is not a decree from Heaven? Or floods, or famine, or war that are natural?
Perhaps he distinguished between providence over an individual and over the community?
And if so, what is your attitude toward this halakhic ruling of Maimonides?
Do you see October 7 as an event because of which people should awaken to repentance and prayer, or as something natural—Arabs who hate us, and we simply closed our eyes instead of seeing and preparing?
Answer
It is possible that his intention is that one should act as though it comes from Heaven, in order to awaken to repentance. But I do not deal with reconciling the views of the medieval authorities on matters of belief. That does not interest me. This is not Jewish law but a theological statement. As for October 7, both answers are correct. It is Arabs who hate us, but there is also an opportunity here to repent. Not in order to be saved, but in order to improve.
Discussion on Answer
That is the Jewish law. The statement about what the matter means is theological.
What do you mean, this is not Jewish law but a theological statement? It is Jewish law that he says one is obligated to fast and sound the alarm. This is a halakhic conclusion from the Talmud in Ta’anit regarding any calamity that comes upon the community.